Man returns to Minnesota, self-surrenders on charges of defrauding Housing Stabilization Services program
A 26-year-old man is in custody after voluntarily returning to Minnesota on charges that he defrauded the Minnesota Housing Stabilization Services program.
On Friday, U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen announced that Kaamil Omar Sallah was arrested at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Thursday evening.
Rosen says the arrest happened nine months after Sallah flew from MSP Airport to Amsterdam.
"His return was coordinated by the Federal Defenders Office after the defendant reported that he wanted to self-surrender and voluntarily return to Minnesota," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement.
Sallah was indicted by grand jury in December and charged with four counts of wire fraud. His first court appearance was Friday.
According to the indictment, Sallah submitted $1.4 million in fraudulent claims as part of a housing stabilization services fraud scheme and received nearly $1.3 million. As part of the scheme, he allegedly claimed to have personally provided "more than 3,600 billable service hours of reimbursable services." He spent $150,000 of it on crypto and fled to Amsterdam after he was subpoenaed, officials say.
"As alleged in the indictment, Kaamil Sallah defrauded Medicaid for approximately $1.3 million. When he learned he was under investigation, he chose to flee," FBI Minneapolis Field Office Special Agent in Charge Christopher D. Dotson said. "This American taxpayer money was designated to help stabilize the housing situation of those in most dire need in our community. The FBI is dedicated to rooting out the fraud that plagues our most vital community services programs, holding fraudsters responsible, and working to ensure those that attempt to flee justice are brought to account."
The HSS program was estimated to cost $2.5 million a year when it launched in 2020, but by 2024 it cost $104 million. Federal regulators terminated the HSS program in October after an investigation found it was "riddled with fraud."