Press Releases

Four California residents were sentenced to prison for their roles in defrauding Medicare of nearly $16 million through sham hospice companies and laundering the fraudulent proceeds.

An Idaho executive pleaded guilty to insider trading on the basis of material nonpublic information about an impending corporate acquisition.

Monico Erich Gastelo, 44, of Fresno, California, was sentenced after being convicted of sexual exploitation of a child and receipt and distribution of child pornography. The Court sentenced Gastelo to 40 years in prison followed by 15 years of supervised release, during which time Gastelo’s access to children, computers, and the internet will be restricted.  He was also required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life upon his release from custody.

The Justice Department announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against Thomas Ray Kelso, the former owner and manager of rental properties formerly known as Briarwood Apartments in Searcy, Arkansas, for engaging in sexual harassment and retaliation in violation of the Fair Housing Act. The lawsuit also names as a defendant Avatar Investments LLC, which owned the rental properties during Kelso’s management and sexual harassment of female tenants.

The Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), working in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP), announced a proposed consent decree with Hanover Foods Corporation. Under the proposed settlement, Hanover Foods would pay a $1.15 million civil penalty and take a series of actions to address violations of the Clean Water Act at its wastewater treatment facility in Hanover, Pennsylvania.

KBWB Operations LLC, doing business as Atrium Health and Senior Living (KBWB-Atrium), and Kevin Breslin, former chief executive officer and managing member of KBWB-Atrium, were sentenced yesterday, in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin following prior guilty pleas to health care fraud and tax conspiracy related to the operation of numerous skilled nursing facilities, the Department of Justice announced.

Today, the Department of Justice released the 2025 Annual Report to Congress on Department of Justice Activities to Combat Elder Fraud and Abuse, which details the Department’s progress in protecting older Americans and holding perpetrators of elder fraud accountable.

Medical device company Aesculap Implant Systems LLC (Aesculap), based in Center Valley, Pennsylvania, has agreed to pay $38.5 million to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act that the company sold knee replacement devices that it knew would fail prematurely at a higher than acceptable rate, resulting in false claims to Medicare and Medicaid. The settlement further resolves allegations that the company paid unlawful remuneration to a physician to induce him to use the knee implants. Additionally, Aesculap agreed to a non-prosecution agreement with the United States in connection with

Last week, a federal jury in Las Vegas convicted a Mexican national of operating a scheme in which he claimed to be an IRS officer and misrepresented to victims that he was able to obtain hundreds of thousands of dollars for them from a fictitious IRS program.

WASHINGTON – Today, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against California, Governor Gavin Newsom, and Attorney General Robert Bonta challenging their unconstitutional attempt to regulate federal law enforcement officers through the so-called “No Secret Police Act” and “No Vigilantes Act.” 

The Department of Justice announced that Clift Seferlis, 55, of Garrett Park, Maryland, entered a plea of guilty today before U.S. District Judge Mark A. Kearney on 17 counts of mailing threatening communications and eight counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs, arising from numerous threats sent to Jewish organizations and entities.

A federal jury in West Palm Beach, Florida, convicted a President of an insurance brokerage firm and a CEO of a marketing company today for their roles in a years-long scheme to submit fraudulent enrollments to fully subsidized Affordable Care Act (ACA) insurance plans in order to obtain millions of dollars in commission payments from insurance companies.