Properties owned by former Anoka County attorney used in sex trafficking ring were also used for Medicaid fraud, state says
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Properties owned by a former Anoka County assistant attorney were used in both a sex trafficking ring and as group homes to steal more than $1 million in Medicaid, according to charges filed Monday.
Andrea Sampson, 35, owned three properties used for Medicaid fraud, according to state charges filed against 30-year-old Salman Ahmed Elmi, whom investigators said also defrauded the system. Investigators with the attorney general’s office said two of those properties were used in a sex trafficking scheme run by Sampson and three others to photograph online sexual advertisements of victims and meet clients purchasing the women.
The charges center on several companies owned either partially or fully by Sampson, Elmi or one of the other defendants in the sex-trafficking case.
REVA Health is owned by Elmi and Frank Reeves, the latter of whom Hennepin County prosecutors described as the ringleader of the sex trafficking operation. The company submitted $2.5 million in Medicaid claims between 2024 and 2026, according to the charging documents.
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REVA Health also listed Viktoriya Komonash as its registered agent. Komonash was indicted in the sex trafficking case, accused primarily of procuring women as young as 19 years old. State investigators said she forced victims of the ring to prepare doctored paperwork to bilk Medicaid and encouraged trafficked women to work at REVA.
Three other companies – REVA Health Autism Center, Helpful Housing and Homefelt Assisted Living – were all co-owned by Sampson and Reeves between 2024 and 2026. Those three companies submitted more than $2 million in Medicaid claims over that same period, according to state investigators.
Prosecutors listed three Minneapolis homes in the documents that were used to coerce women into the sex trafficking operation.
Elmi was given the Outstanding Refugee Award for Entrepreneurship by the Minnesota Department of Human Services in 2021. He is part owner of a Minneapolis-based software company Tavolo, which prosecutors say received approximately more than $140,000 from a REVA business account. "Shark Tank" star Kevin O'Leary invested in Tavolo in 2024.
