The New Fraud Division Just Had a Billion-Dollar Week — Again
DOJ’s six-week-old National Fraud Enforcement Division is settling into a weekly rhythm of major federal charges. Here’s what that means for anyone in healthcare, government contracting, or the gig economy of pandemic-era benefits.
On May 15, the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division announced “over $1 billion” in enforcement actions for the second straight week. The headline conviction came out of the Southern District of Florida, where a federal jury convicted the founder of HealthSplash for operating a software platform that generated false doctors’ orders and prescriptions to bill Medicare and other federal healthcare programs more than $1 billion in unnecessary equipment. The same press release listed nearly a dozen other federal cases — a Utah podiatrist and two nurses indicted on $29 million in skin substitute claims, a Hong Kong financial services CEO who pleaded guilty in the Southern District of New York to helping U.S. taxpayers conceal $60 million offshore, a Brentwood attorney in the Middle District of Tennessee who pleaded guilty to hiding cryptocurrency income, an Illinois tax preparer convicted at trial for an $11 million pandemic unemployment fraud, a Danish autism researcher extradited from Germany to face Atlanta charges for stealing CDC grant money, and several more.
The headlines write themselves. The real story is the institutional one.
A new prosecuting office, six weeks old
The National Fraud Enforcement Division didn’t exist on April 6. On April 7, DOJ announced its creation. Six weeks later, the Division is running back-to-back weeks of billion-dollar enforcement announcements with coordinated press releases organized by topic — Benefits Program Fraud, Health Care Fraud, Government Fraud, Tax Fraud. That format is new. The packaging is new. The cadence — what the Division itself is calling a “second straight week” of major actions — is new.
The Division is led by Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald, and per the May 15 release, sits inside President Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a “whole-of-government effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal benefit programs.” Whatever you think of that framing politically, the operational fact is that an entire new prosecuting component has stood up with a clear mandate and a clear performance metric: dollars charged, by week, in a press release.
For federal defense practitioners and anyone exposed to the federal benefit-program economy, that institutional fact matters more than any single indictment.
Good choice — that also fixes the missing conversion hook. Here's a short FAQ to add to the bottom of the post (before a disclaimer), built only from facts I verified above. Add it as normal text with bold questions, same as your other posts.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the DOJ National Fraud Enforcement Division? It's a standalone Justice Department litigating division formally established on April 7, 2026 and led by Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald. It consolidated the Criminal Division's Tax Section, Health Care Fraud Unit, and Market, Government, and Consumer Fraud Unit, with a mandate to investigate and prosecute fraud against taxpayer dollars and taxpayer-funded programs.
Who does the Fraud Division target? Its publicly stated priorities are health care fraud, tax fraud, benefits-program fraud, and government/procurement fraud — schemes that misuse federal money. Its recent enforcement announcements have spanned Medicare billing, offshore tax concealment, pandemic unemployment fraud, and misuse of federal grant funds.
Does this affect people in East Texas? Yes. The Division operates nationwide, and each U.S. Attorney's Office — including the Eastern District of Texas — was directed to designate a dedicated prosecutor to carry out the Division's mission in that district. Federal fraud cases here are prosecuted in the same East Texas federal courts as other federal matters.
What should I do if I'm contacted about a federal fraud investigation? Do not speak with investigators or respond to a subpoena or target letter on your own. Politely state that you want to talk to your attorney first, preserve all relevant records, and retain experienced federal defense counsel immediately. Anything you say can be used to build the case against you.