Anoka County paid Andrea Sampson to put predators behind bars.
Prosecutors now say she was helping run the predators' operation instead.
New charges show her real scheme went far beyond the trafficking ring everyone already knew about.
How a Prosecutor's Badge Became Cover for a Trafficking Ring
Sampson spent nearly a decade as an assistant Anoka County attorney, standing in courtrooms and arguing that criminals belonged in prison.
Behind that badge, prosecutors say, she was quietly setting up the shell companies that let a Twin Cities trafficking ring hide its money.
Frank Reeves allegedly ran the operation.
Viktoriya Komonash and Katherine Thomes allegedly ran the websites that sold women for sex out of houses in Minneapolis, St. Louis Park, and Bloomington.
Sampson's alleged job was making the profits disappear.
Investigators say at least 13 women were forced to pay for their own online ads and leave envelopes stuffed with 100 dollars in cash for the men running the ring.
Some of those same women were allegedly used to fake Medicaid patients so the operation could bill the government for services nobody ever received.
BCA Superintendent Drew Evans called it a complicated scheme built specifically to hide money – "building out shell companies" to launder cash from women who were being threatened and assaulted for profit.
Sampson faces 26 charges.
A judge set her bail at 1 million dollars with conditions, or 300,000 dollars without.
Anoka County put her on leave the moment investigators came knocking.
The 2.5 Million Dollar Medicaid Scheme Hiding Inside the Same Houses
Here is the part Gateway Pundit's readers have not seen yet.
The same properties allegedly used for trafficking were also billing Medicaid for services that state investigators say never happened.
Sampson's assisted living homes alone brought in 1.2 million dollars in Medicaid billings between 2023 and 2026, according to charging documents.
Across every business tied to the ring, the fraudulent billing tops 2.5 million dollars.
The services being billed included assisted living, housing stabilization, and autism care.
A fifth suspect, Salman Elmi, was charged separately for his role in the Medicaid side of the operation.
Read that again.
The same houses where women were allegedly threatened and sold for sex were also functioning as a taxpayer-funded Medicaid mill.
That is not two crimes running side by side.
That is one criminal enterprise using government healthcare money to fund a trafficking ring, with a licensed prosecutor allegedly building the paperwork to hide it.
Mary Moriarty Is the Prosecutor Who Now Has to Clean This Up
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty stood next to Drew Evans at Monday's press conference and admitted the case is far from over.
"This will not be the end of it," Moriarty said, telling reporters investigators believe there are more victims than the 13 already identified.
Moriarty is the same county attorney Minnesota Republicans flagged over her "active work to demonize law enforcement" after she charged, then dropped all charges against, State Trooper Ryan Londregan in 2024.
Republicans filed a formal complaint with the House Judiciary Committee calling her a "corrupted official" who "refused to listen to the facts of the case and the law."
Now her office decides how much further this trafficking and Medicaid fraud case goes.
Separately, Anoka County says it cannot yet review the cases Sampson herself prosecuted, because it has no direct access to the ongoing criminal investigation.
University of St. Thomas law professor Rachel Moran says that review needs to happen regardless.
"I think we should expect some form of review, yes," Moran said.
Every plea deal Sampson negotiated, every case she argued, every defendant she sent away, now sits under a cloud, decided in part by a county attorney conservatives already do not trust to hold anyone accountable.
Andrea Sampson did not slip through a small crack in the system.
She drove a truck through it.
Sources:
- Drew Evans quote, shell company details, and Medicaid billing figures, "$2.5M Medicaid fraud tied to Minneapolis sex trafficking ring involving ex-Anoka County prosecutor," FOX 9, August 18, 2026.
- Mary Moriarty press conference quotes and victim count, "Sex trafficking charges: BCA, Hennepin County Attorney hold press conference," FOX 9, August 17, 2026.
- Republican criticism of Mary Moriarty and the Londregan case, "MN Republicans Respond to Moriarty Dropping All Charges in Londregan Case," Office of Rep. Brad Finstad, June 2024.
- Charge count and bail figures, and Rachel Moran quote on case review, "Should some past cases be reviewed as ex-Anoka County prosecutor faces sex trafficking charges? Law expert says yes," KSTP, August 2026.
