Owner of medical tourism company indicted over PPP fraud
(FOX 9) - Federal prosecutors have finally indicted a Minneapolis businesswoman for orchestrating a multi-million-dollar fraud scheme, first uncovered by the FOX 9 Investigators nearly two years ago.
Khemwattie (Kim) Singh, 52, was CEO of Global Medical Services, a company that provided concierge medical services in Minnesota to foreign clients.
The company’s website featured pictures of Singh traveling the world promoting her medical tourism company that connected wealthy foreign dignitaries with Minnesota doctors and hospitals.
But by the summer of 2019, the company was falling apart. Employees in Minneapolis hadn’t been paid in months and Singh was allegedly defrauding investors.
The company’s new Chief Financial Officer, hired to right the ship, had just been convicted of felony theft in North Dakota.
As the FOX 9 Investigators reported, in May 2020 Singh applied for and received $383,408 in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) money, even though her company was no longer operating.
According to the indictment, Singh also defrauded a Florida company, MD Capital Solutions, that sold Global Medical Services, and an affiliated business Minnesota International Medicine, more than $2.6 million in accounts receivables.
Singh falsely claimed she never received any money, and instead wired more than $5 million overseas to bank accounts in Morocco and various shell companies she controlled, federal prosecutors say.
The global pandemic provided a financial lifeline for a company that was on life support already.
Federal prosecutors say Singh made false statements on the PPP application that she had 40 employees and an average monthly payroll of $153,363.
As the FOX 9 Investigators reported, most of those employees had been let go in November 2019.
Singh received $296,800 from the program and transferred $116,000 to her bank account to pay for personal expenses.
Singh is charged in the federal indictment with seven counts of wire fraud.
Singh made an appearance in federal court yesterday and was released on a $25,000 unsecured bond. She had to surrender her passport.