On August 13, 2026, Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald issued a memo entitled The Fraud Division’s Enforcement Priorities to all personnel of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) new National Fraud Enforcement Division. As the title suggests, the memo sets out the division’s enforcement priorities. While the memo doesn’t break new ground, it highlights further
The autism therapy industry is a growing target for government enforcement. As I discussed recently in Emerging Target: Federal Enforcement Comes to the Autism Therapy Industry, Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy — currently the dominant type of autism therapy — has all the markers for healthcare fraud enforcement: explosive reimbursement growth, low barriers to
In a unanimous decision issued on June 4, 2026, the Supreme Court handed the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) an enforcement victory. That case — Sripetch v. SEC — concluded that the SEC is not required to show a pecuniary loss to investors before the SEC may obtain disgorgement. At the same time, the Court
The Department of Justice (DOJ) just issued a new memorandum that may reshape how the government handles False Claims Act (FCA) cases involving federally funded benefits programs. Signed by Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate on May 27, 2026, the memo directs DOJ attorneys to accelerate their review and prosecution of whistleblower suits alleging fraud
2025 served as a watermark year for the False Claims Act (FCA) as recoveries reached their highest total ever – over $6.8 billion – confirming the continued use of the FCA as one of the government’s most impactful tools in policing government programs. Although 2025 saw more FCA cases filed than ever before, and the
On January 20, 2026, in Ellingburg v. United States, 607 U.S. ____ (2026), the Supreme Court considered whether the Ex Post Facto Clause applies to the Mandatory Victim Restitution Act (MVRA), the statutory basis for most orders of restitution in federal criminal cases. That determination turned on whether restitution was a criminal penalty. If
In 2024, the government and whistleblowers were party to 558 False Claims Act (FCA) settlements and judgments, just slightly fewer cases than last year’s record. As a result, collections under the FCA exceeded $2.9 billion, confirming that the FCA remains one of the government’s most important tools to root out fraud, safeguard government programs, and
The Justice Department released its annual False Claims Act statistics on Wednesday, January 15, detailing the number of cases filed, recoveries made, and relators’ shares awarded in fiscal year 2024. The government recovered $2.9 billion dollars in 2024, with 57% of that total coming from healthcare cases, 3% from defense spending cases, and the remainder
How long can the government keep your property after lawfully seizing it? According to the D.C. Circuit in a recent decision, as long as the continued possession is still reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. This decision furthers a split among circuit courts and portends how the text, history, and tradition method might influence Fourth Amendment
The federal wire fraud statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1343, is one of the commonly used statutes in federal white-collar criminal cases. In our digital age, nearly any significant fraud or scheme could probably be charged as a wire fraud. But even expansive statutes have limits, as the Supreme Court held last year in an important