Ahmed Nur says more than $650,000 in a company account should stay beyond prosecutors’ reach.
ST. PAUL, MN — A convicted Medicaid fraud defendant is fighting Minnesota prosecutors over more than $650,000 in a corporate bank account as the state tries to recover money stolen from a public health care program.
Ahmed Nur pleaded guilty last year to two counts of aiding and abetting theft by swindle in a nearly $10 million Medicaid fraud case. He was sentenced to 180 days in the Hennepin County Workhouse and, with nearly a dozen co-defendants, was ordered to repay more than $2.3 million. The dispute now before a judge centers on whether money held by a company Nur owned can be used toward that court-ordered restitution.
Prosecutors have already moved against two bank accounts tied to Nur. They successfully argued to seize more than $1.2 million from his personal account, leaving more than $1 million still owed by Nur or other defendants. During a court hearing last month, Nur’s attorney, Eric Nelson, argued that a separate business account should be off limits because it belongs to AAA A-Z Friendly Languages Inc., not to Nur personally. “The corporation is the owner of that account,” Nelson said in court. He said the company was not convicted of a crime and should not be treated as if it were.
AAA A-Z Friendly Languages operated from an office on East Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis and was reimbursed by Medicaid for interpreter services for patients with limited English skills. Nelson told the court the state’s restitution law allows seizure of an account only when the account holder has been convicted of a felony or lesser offense. “For all intents and purposes, it was a clean corporation,” Nelson said. State lawyers disagree. Assistant Attorney General Kristi Nielsen said Nur was the sole account holder for A-Z and that the money can be used to repay losses from the Medicaid case.
The fraud case began with charges announced in 2023 against owners and managers of MN Professional, a personal care assistant agency accused of defrauding Minnesota Medical Assistance. Prosecutors said the agency billed for services that were not provided and for services that lacked required supervision by a nurse or another qualified professional. State officials said the alleged scheme involved about $9.5 million and was then the largest Medicaid fraud prosecution brought by the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office. Nur and Abdikarim Mohamed were identified as owners of the agency.
The state said MN Professional received more than $1.6 million for services billed but not provided and more than $7.8 million for personal care assistant services that were not properly supervised. Investigators said some personal care assistants told them they did not know or serve patients whose care was billed under their names and provider numbers. The complaint also described what prosecutors called a cash-checking scheme that hid proceeds and caused some workers to receive inflated tax forms. Nur later pleaded guilty to two theft-by-swindle counts, narrowing the case against him but leaving restitution at the center of the state’s recovery effort.
The company account now in dispute adds another layer to Minnesota’s broader effort to claw back stolen public money after fraud convictions. Prosecutors said A-Z was not charged in Nur’s criminal case, but court records reviewed in the matter show the company was named in other Medicaid fraud investigations. Several contracted interpreters connected to A-Z were accused of billing for fraudulent or “phantom” interpreter services. In one filing, Nur allegedly told investigators the company verified interpreter logs only about 10% of the time, even as it claimed tens of thousands of dollars in reimbursements.
Nielsen told the court that bank seizures are among the few tools available to recover public dollars after Medicaid fraud cases. She said stolen money from the program leaves fewer resources for legitimate care. “Every dollar in the Medicaid program is intended to support real care for real people,” Nielsen said during the hearing. Nelson said the state’s approach would make Nur bear too much of a debt shared by several defendants. He said forcing Nur to pay most of the restitution “smacks of unfairness,” especially when the restitution order applies to the group.
That kind of repayment order is known as joint and several restitution. It means any defendant’s payment reduces the total amount owed, even if one person pays far more than others. Prosecutors said victims should be repaid from whatever lawful source is available. Nielsen said the court should focus on Medicaid recipients rather than on whether Nur pays a larger share than co-defendants. Nelson wrote in a filing that some others involved in the case moved or hid assets after learning of the state’s investigation, leaving prosecutors to pursue the funds they could still find.
Judge Mark Kappelhoff has not yet decided whether the state can drain the A-Z account. He said he wants more evidence and wants to hear from Nur’s bank before ruling. Kappelhoff noted that Nur’s relationship to the company may matter because he was its sole shareholder. “There certainly seems to be a nexus between Mr. Nur and the corporation,” Kappelhoff said. “So, there may be inferences that I could draw, depending on what the bank has to say.”
The next hearing on the account is scheduled for May 20. Until then, more than $650,000 remains at issue as Minnesota tries to turn a fraud conviction into repayment for the Medicaid program.
Author note: Last updated May 18, 2026.