DOJ Charges 324 Defendants in Largest Health Care Fraud Takedown in History, over $14.6 Billion in Alleged Fraud
On June 30, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice announced in Washington the results of its 2025 National Health Care Fraud Takedown: criminal charges against 324 defendants, including 96 doctors, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, and other licensed medical professionals, in 50 federal districts and 12 State Attorneys General's offices, for alleged health care fraud schemes involving over $14.6 billion in intended loss. It is the largest health care fraud takedown in the Department's history, more than doubling the prior record of $6 billion.
The government seized over $245 million in cash, luxury vehicles, cryptocurrency, and other assets, the Department said. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that it had prevented over $4 billion from being paid on false and fraudulent claims in the months leading up to the takedown, and had suspended or revoked the billing privileges of 205 providers. The announcement also included civil charges against 20 defendants for $14.2 million in alleged fraud, and civil settlements with 106 defendants totaling $34.3 million.
The largest single case, known to law enforcement as Operation Gold Rush, involves a transnational criminal organization that allegedly used foreign straw owners to buy dozens of medical supply companies across the United States and exploited the stolen identities and confidential medical information of over one million Americans to submit $10.6 billion in fraudulent Medicare claims for urinary catheters and other durable medical equipment. Nineteen defendants were charged in the Eastern District of New York and four other districts; twelve were arrested, including four apprehended in Estonia. Medicare supplemental insurers paid approximately $900 million, and law enforcement has seized approximately $27.7 million in fraud proceeds.
Other headline cases include 74 defendants, among them 44 medical professionals, charged in connection with the illegal diversion of over 15 million prescription opioid pills; 49 defendants in telemedicine and genetic testing schemes involving over $1.17 billion in allegedly fraudulent claims; and seven defendants charged with approximately $1.1 billion in fraudulent claims for amniotic wound allografts applied to vulnerable elderly patients, many in hospice care.
Attorney General Pamela Bondi said the record-setting takedown delivers justice to criminal actors who prey upon the most vulnerable citizens and steal from hardworking American taxpayers. FBI Director Kash Patel said more than $13 billion in fraud was uncovered, the largest result for this initiative to date. The takedown was led and coordinated by the Health Care Fraud Unit of the Criminal Division's Fraud Section, with HHS-OIG, the FBI, the DEA, and other agencies; the Department also announced a new Health Care Fraud Data Fusion Center. The U.S. Attorneys' Offices for the Central, Northern, and Southern Districts of California are among the offices prosecuting the cases.
An indictment, information, or complaint is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
(Source: U.S. Department of Justice)
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于华盛顿特区的美国司法部罗伯特·肯尼迪大楼，司法部总部，本次全国清查由司法部刑事局诈骗科牵头协调。APK 摄，CC BY 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington, D.C., headquarters of the U.S. Department of Justice, whose Criminal Division Fraud Section led and coordinated the nationwide takedown. Photo by APK, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
