Story by Ethan
On July 31st, 2025, the arrest of Khaled Salem, age 53, was announced by Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. Khaled Salem was charged on a 60-count indictment with second-degree grand Larceny, first-degree Offering a False Instrument for Filing, second-degree Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument, second- and third-degree Identity Theft and a Violation of New York State Election Law. The arrest and charges against Khaled Salem were a result of an investigation handled by the New York State Attorney General’s Office, New York State Board of Elections, Intelligence Analyst Veranika Basak, Paralegal Jezebel Negrete-Ugaz, and KCDA Detective Investigators.
According to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, Khaled Salem applied for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan on April 6th, 2020, for a nonprofit the defendant started in 2019 named American Human Rights (AHR). On March 15th, 2021, Khaled Salem received a PPP loan for $104,166, however the defendant would later apply for loan forgiveness under false pretenses. Allegedly Khaled Salem had misrepresented his organization through listing fake employees and lying about the payroll in order to be granted the loan forgiveness, claiming the funds were used for payroll expenses.
On April 2nd, 2024, allegedly Khaled Salem had submitted a 12 volume, 5,900 page long petition to the New York State Board of Elections to qualify for the primary democratic ballot. The petition claimed to have had three separate witnesses that collected over 30,000 signatures in support of Khaled Salem’s campaign. However when questioned, many of the individuals who supposedly signed the petition claim to have never signed or supported Khaled Salem’s campaign. In addition to the forged signatures, allegedly Khaled Salem had also included numerous fake names, addresses, and signatures for people that do not exist. Khaled Salem was ultimately not placed in the running for the primary democratic ballot following this incident.
The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office stated that the charges against Khaled Salem are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
