Queens dentist accused of stealing $300,000 from Medicaid

Suleman Nasimi, a Queens dentist, was arrested for allegedly submitting $300,000 in fake Medicaid reimbursements over the course of four years. Photo via ZocDoc

By Jacob Kaye

A Queens dentist was arrested this week for filing $300,000 worth of allegedly fake Medicaid reimbursements, including some that claimed he performed dental procedures while he was jet-setting on a European vacation.

Suleman Nasimi, a 46-year-old dentist who ran Tooth Fresh Meadows in Queens, was arrested and charged by the state attorney general for submitting dozens of false dental procedure claims for Medicaid reimbursement over the course of four years from the start of 2020 until August 2024.

Prosecutors said that Nasimi claimed to have performed a number of dental procedures, including root canals and porcelain crown installations, when he actually hadn’t.

The fraudulent claims had serious consequences for some of his actual patients, whose names appeared on the Medicaid reimbursement claims. When patients went to different dentists to get their procedures done, they were told they wouldn’t be covered by Medicaid because there was a record of them already receiving the procedures.

“Fraudsters who steal from Medicaid with fake billing schemes put vulnerable New Yorkers at risk by making it harder for them to get the care they need,” Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “All New Yorkers deserve quality dental care, and my office will not tolerate dentists who put personal greed before their patients.”

Nasimi was hit with a total of 40 charges this week.

According to prosecutors, the dentist billed Medicaid for at least 35 patients that he did not actually treat during the four-year stretch.

Nasimi got particularly bold in July 2022, when prosecutors claim he billed for over $140,000 worth of procedures when his office was closed and he was on vacation in England, France and Greece.

Nasimi got under the skin of a number of patients, many of whom have left poor reviews of his practice online for years.

Not only did patients complain about long wait times and rude receptionists, but several pointed out that their insurance was charged for procedures they did not receive.

“These may just be mistakes, but please check your insurance records,” one person wrote in a Yelp review of Tooth Fresh Meadows in 2023. “My insurance has been billed multiple times for procedures and x-rays the dentist did not take. This prevented us from getting my procedures covered at another dentist.”

Another person who posted a review in 2023 said that they were charged four times for a crown procedure that they only received once.

“He is a [fraudster],” the reviewer wrote.

Nasimi faces a maximum sentence of five to 15 years in state prison if convicted.