Press Releases

An indictment unsealed yesterday in the District of Kansas charged a Honduran man and Kansas woman for conspiring to submit, and submitting, a sponsorship application with false statements to the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to gain custody of an Unaccompanied Alien Child (UAC) after the child entered the U.S. illegally.

An Illinois businessman was sentenced yesterday to six years in prison and two years of supervised release for his role in schemes to fraudulently obtain over $55 million in commercial loans and lines of credit, as well as for submitting fraudulent applications to obtain COVID-19 relief money guaranteed by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

Florida ophthalmology practices Clay Eye Holdings LLC, Retina Macula Specialist of Miami LLC, Florida Eye Institute P.A., Miami Eye LLC, and Kendall Eye Institute Inc. have agreed to pay a total of nearly $6 million to resolve alleged violations of the False Claims Act arising from their billing for trans-cranial doppler ultrasounds (TCDs) through a kickback arrangement with a third-party testing company. All five practices have agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department’s ongoing investigations of other participants in the alleged scheme.

Rayshawn Deon Taylor, 36, a former Durham Police Department officer, was sentenced to 37 months in prison and two years of supervised release for sexually assaulting a man during a welfare check on Aug. 21, 2024. Taylor previously pleaded guilty to one count of deprivation of rights under color of law involving sexual misconduct.

Today, the Justice Department filed a forfeiture complaint against two mission crew trainers (MCTs) that were interdicted in transit from the Test Flying Academy of South Africa (TFASA) to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The MCTs are mobile classrooms intended to assist the PLA to train personnel on the use of airborne warning and control system and anti-submarine warfare aircraft.

Two defendants pleaded guilty today to conspiring to defraud Medicaid by paying health care kickbacks for services that were not provided at two Brooklyn social adult day cares and a home health care company.

A Jacksonville minister pleaded guilty today to obstructing the IRS's efforts to collect his tax debts.

Affiliates of Kaiser Permanente, an integrated healthcare consortium headquartered in Oakland, California, have agreed to pay $556 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by submitting invalid diagnosis codes for their Medicare Advantage Plan enrollees in order to receive higher payments from the government.

The Justice Department, acting on referral from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), announced today that a federal court has entered a stipulated order resolving a case against Dun & Bradstreet Inc., doing business as D&B. Under the court’s order, Dun & Bradstreet will pay a $2,063,000 civil penalty and $2,785,786 in customer refunds, in addition to $924,590 of refunds it has already issued, to resolve allegations that it violated an FTC order.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division filed a lawsuit today against the State of Minnesota challenging Minnesota’s requirement that all state agencies implement sex- and race-based affirmative action plans and consider “affirmative action goals on all staffing and personnel decisions.” The State’s affirmative action program directs agencies to engage in employment practices that “balance” the sex and race composition of its workforce with the civilian labor force.

A California man pleaded guilty yesterday to operating an illegal gambling business, laundering money, and evading his taxes. 

The Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) filed a complaint in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California challenging California Senate Bill 1137 (SB 1137), which prevents oil and gas development activities within 3,200 feet of a so-called “sensitive receptor.” SB 1137 would knock out about one-third of all federally authorized oil and gas leases in California. This lawsuit argues that federal law — specifically, the Mineral Leasing Act and the Federal Land and Policy Management Act — preempts SB 1137.