Suleman Nasimi

Introduction

Suleman Nasimi is a Queens, New York dentist who was arrested on September 28, 2026, and charged with stealing more than $300,000 from Medicaid by billing for hundreds of dental procedures he never performed. Nasimi, 46, of Hicksville in Nassau County, operated a practice called Tooth Fresh Meadows, through which New York Attorney General Letitia James’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit alleges he submitted false claims for root canals, porcelain crown installations, and other invasive work that never happened — including claims filed on days he was on vacation in Europe. Nasimi and his practice were arraigned in Queens on two separate 40-count felony complaints before Judge Jennifer Saint-Preux. If convicted on the top count, he faces up to five to fifteen years in state prison .

Background Information

Nasimi’s practice, Tooth Fresh Meadows, served Medicaid patients in Queens. The Attorney General’s investigation alleges that from January 1, 2020, through August 31, 2024, Nasimi claimed to have performed hundreds of procedures — including invasive work like root canals and porcelain crowns — that he never performed at all. The scheme had a second-order victim effect that prosecutors highlighted: because Medicaid’s records showed patients had already received procedures Nasimi billed for but never did, several patients were unable to get the dental treatment they actually needed. When they went to other dentists, they were denied prior approval because Medicaid had already paid Nasimi for those procedures on paper .

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Charged, not convicted. The accusations come from felony complaints filed by the New York Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. The charges are accusations: Nasimi and his practice are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty, as the Attorney General’s own release states.

The investigation by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit found that Nasimi billed for procedures on at least 35 Medicaid recipients between January 2020 and August 2024 that were never performed. The allegations include an especially brazen pattern: in July 2022 alone, Nasimi is alleged to have billed for more than $140,000 worth of procedures during periods when his office was closed and he was on vacation in England, France, and Greece — claims submitted for dental work supposedly done on days he was out of the country. The false billing allegedly allowed him, through Tooth Fresh Meadows, to steal more than $300,000 from Medicaid in total .

Nasimi and Tooth Fresh Meadows were each charged under separate 40-count felony complaints: one count of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, two counts of Health Care Fraud in the Second Degree, two counts of Health Care Fraud in the Third Degree, and 35 counts of Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree. They were arraigned on the complaints on the day of the arrest, September 28, 2026 .

Public Reaction and Consequences

Attorney General Letitia James announced the arrest personally, framing the case around the patients on the other side of the false claims: “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. All New Yorkers deserve quality dental care, and my office will not tolerate dentists who put personal greed before their patients. We will continue to ensure that Medicaid fraudsters are held accountable and criminally prosecuted when they break the law” .

The case was built by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit with assistance from the state Office of the Medicaid Inspector General and the managed-care company DentaQuest, and it was prosecuted by Special Assistant Attorney General Matthew C. DeSaro. The charge structure — 35 separate false-instrument counts, one per billed procedure set — reflects the granularity of the audit behind the case: investigators reconstructed the billing record procedure by procedure against what actually happened in the chair .

Current Status

As of the last available reporting, Nasimi and his practice had been arraigned on the 40-count complaints in Queens and the case was pending. No trial date, plea, or dispositions were announced in the Attorney General’s release, and no statement from Nasimi or an attorney for him appears in the record. The Attorney General’s release carries the standard admonition that the charges are accusations and that the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty — the posture this page reflects .

Impact on Their Career/Life

A dentist charged with 40 felony counts of billing for phantom procedures faces the collapse of his professional life in fact even before any verdict: New York’s education law provides for the suspension and revocation of professional licenses on conviction, and Medicaid program exclusion would end any participation in public insurance work. The allegations, if proven, also convert his patient base into witnesses — the 35 Medicaid recipients whose records show procedures they never received. For the Medicaid program, the case documents a version of provider fraud that is doubly harmful: the program paid for nothing, and the patients it was supposed to serve were locked out of care by the false record of care already delivered. That patient-lockout mechanic is what the Attorney General’s office emphasized in announcing the arrest, and it is what makes the case a fixture of New York’s Medicaid enforcement record rather than a routine billing prosecution .

Sources

• New York Attorney General Letitia James, “Attorney General James Announces Arrest of Queens Dentist Who Stole Over $300,000 from Medicaid,” September 28, 2026 — source