The Department of Justice’s unveiling this week of sweeping charges against more than 300 defendants who allegedly defrauded Medicare and other taxpayer-funded programs came as part of the department’s annual “takedown” event.
The healthcare fraud takedowns have been a practice at the DOJ for more than a decade, but officials touted this one as the largest on record. It stood out not only for its size but also because it focused on transnational criminals and broached artificial intelligence.
“This takedown represents the largest healthcare fraud takedown in American history,” DOJ Criminal Division head Matthew Galeotti said. “But it’s not the end. It’s the beginning of a new era of aggressive prosecution and data-driven prevention.”
This year’s operation led to 324 defendants being charged for submitting billions of dollars in allegedly fraudulent healthcare claims, including for medical care that patients never ended up receiving or that they received unnecessarily.
A DOJ official told reporters after the announcement that the work was “strategically coordinated” so that the takedown involved “all new indictments, complaints, [and] informations.”
Charges were brought across 50 federal districts and, according to the official, all were brought or unsealed during a three-week period leading up to the takedown announcement.
Galeotti said the intended false claims totaled $14.6 billion, and the actual losses reached $2.9 billion.
Another DOJ official told Fox News Digital the purpose of the annual takedowns is “to raise public awareness and deter wrongdoers from engaging in this crime.” The official noted that Operation Brace Yourself, a 2019 takedown, led to an estimated reduction of $1.9 billion being charged to Medicare for certain types of orthotic braces.
“Every fraudulent claim, every fake billing, every kickback scheme represents money taken directly from the pockets of American taxpayers, who fund these essential programs through their hard work and sacrifice,” Galeotti said.
International scam
The charges announced this week spanned the globe, and DOJ officials said that in addition to four arrested in Estonia and another seven arrested at airports or the U.S.-Mexico border, the department was working to extradite others overseas who are accused of crimes.
The 2025 National Healthcare Fraud Takedown uncovered $14.6 billion in fraud losses, resulting in 324 individuals being charged with crimes. (Department of Justice)
Those defendants were part of an alleged scheme coined “Operation Gold Rush,” which resulted in at least 20 members of a transnational criminal organization, including defendants based in Russia, being charged as part of a Medicare and money laundering operation that centered on catheters.
The group behind the scheme allegedly used foreign ownership entities to buy dozens of medical supply companies and then used stolen identities and confidential health data to create and file $10.6 billion in claims with Medicare.
“We are seeing a disturbing trend of transnational criminal organizations engaging in increasingly sophisticated and complex criminal schemes that defraud the American healthcare system,” Galeotti said.
Two owners of Pakistani marketing organizations were among those charged in an alleged $703 million scheme in which they used artificial intelligence to create fake recordings of Medicare recipients consenting to receive medical supplies.
“We are concerned about the criminals’ advancement in technology here, obviously,” Galeotti said.
This is government healthcare and why Democrats love huge programs that soak up billions of taxpayer dollars: thievery is easy.