The Justice Department’s newly formed National Fraud Enforcement Division is making good on its promise to hunt down fraudsters, announcing a massive wave of convictions and guilty pleas this week.
From a half-billion-dollar genetic testing scam to a former NFL player’s multi-million dollar healthcare scheme, federal prosecutors are aggressively targeting those who siphon money away from taxpayers and public benefit programs.
Leading the charge is Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald, who emphasized the division’s growing reach. “The Fraud Division continues to grow its footprint and aggressively prosecute fraud schemes, no matter the size,” McDonald stated. “Every day, prosecutors and law enforcement partners across the country are working to protect Americans from fraudsters who want to steal citizens’ hard-earned prosperity.”
The most significant sentencing involved a massive $522 million hit against Medicare and Medicaid. Two men were handed prison terms of 151 months and 36 months for submitting thousands of fraudulent claims for medically unnecessary genetic tests.
The crackdown also hit the professional sports world. A former NFL player received a sentence of over 16 years after conspiring to defraud Medicare and the VA out of nearly $200 million. He has been ordered to pay back $110 million in restitution, while federal agents seized $17 million in cash and assets.
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Public benefit programs were a major target for scammers. In Pennsylvania, one defendant was sentenced to 12 years for laundering $59 million in public benefits to China.
Meanwhile, a Michigan man admitted to a decade-long student loan scam that netted over $10 million. In a more localized case, a Florida man pleaded guilty to stealing $250,000 in VA benefits by faking blindness to claim he couldn’t drive or work.
The division is also cleaning up pandemic-era corruption. Multiple cases involved the CARES Act, including a Florida tax preparer who used false records to seek $4.1 million in PPP loans. In Tennessee, a man admitted to using a $159,900 emergency loan meant for COVID-19 relief to cover his own personal bills.
Government services weren’t safe either. Two former U.S. Postal Service employees were among four people who pleaded guilty to a conspiracy that saw $84 million in U.S. Treasury checks stolen directly from mail sorting machines. The checks were then sold to buyers across the country.
These prosecutions are part of a broader “whole-of-government” push. The National Fraud Enforcement Division supports the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a White House initiative chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance.
The group’s primary goal is to strip waste and abuse out of federal programs and ensure that government funds actually reach the citizens they are intended for.
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