A nationwide healthcare fraud crackdown resulted in charges against 455 defendants accused of schemes involving more than $6.5 billion in fraudulent claims, marking what federal officials on Tuesday described as the largest coordinated healthcare fraud enforcement action in Justice Department history.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., FBI Director Kash Patel, and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz announced the operation, which spanned 57 federal districts across 41 states and territories and included charges against 90 licensed medical professionals.
Trump administration officials said the defendants are accused of participating in a wide range of healthcare fraud schemes involving Medicare, Medicaid, telemedicine, hospice care, wound grafts, and opioid distribution. Authorities also seized more than $127 million in cash, luxury vehicles, jewelry, and other assets.
“In just 14 days, 455 defendants have been charged across the country for schemes involving over $6.5 billion in fraud,” Criminal Division chief Colin McDonald said during a press conference. “There is no case too big, no scheme too complex, and no hiding place too remote for our fraud-fighting team.”
The department announces its “National Health Care Fraud Takedown Results” each summer, and the results from this year’s takedown mark a record surpassing the 324 defendants charged last year, though it technically falls short of the $14.6 billion in total fraud uncovered as part of the administration’s 2025 operation.
According to one indictment, Oren David Shachar, the owner of several healthcare businesses including at least four hospices, allegedly paid kickbacks and bribes to enroll Medicare beneficiaries who were not terminally ill into hospice programs. Prosecutors said the scheme generated nearly $27.7 million in fraudulent Medicare claims and resulted in approximately $26.9 million in Medicare payments.
The indictment further alleges that Shachar obtained personal information from deceased Medicare beneficiaries through a funeral home employee and used the identities to enroll patients in hospice after their deaths. Prosecutors said participants created backdated medical records to make it appear that the beneficiaries qualified for hospice care before they died.
This case and the hundreds more announced Tuesday all amount to the eye-raising $6.5 billion figure. Kennedy pointed to Shachar’s case as an example of the type of fraud the administration seeks to identify earlier through expanded data analysis and oversight.
“One of the ways that we’ve been able to detect that fraud is that in many of them, the patients never die, they live forever,” Kennedy said. “That’s not supposed to happen in hospices.”
Officials said the operation also produced a record number of Medicaid fraud defendants, with more than 100 people charged in schemes involving over $100 million in allegedly false Medicaid claims.
One Illinois behavioral health provider was charged in an alleged $67 million Medicaid fraud scheme involving claims for services prosecutors say were never provided. In some instances, officials said, patients were hospitalized elsewhere when the services supposedly occurred.
Another defendant allegedly submitted approximately $89 million in false claims tied to cardiovascular testing. Prosecutors said the doctor approved test results in as little as 11 seconds without properly reviewing diagnostic images. One patient with signs of an enlarged heart was reportedly cleared to continue participating in athletics before suffering sudden cardiac arrest weeks later.
As part of Tuesday’s announcement, the DOJ also unveiled new data-sharing agreements with the Federal Trade Commission, Department of Homeland Security, and CMS. Officials said the agreements will provide investigators access to consumer complaints, travel data, and advanced fraud-detection tools powered by machine learning.
The administration said the new partnerships are intended to help investigators identify suspicious billing patterns before taxpayer funds are paid out, rather than attempting to recover money after the fact.
Kennedy criticized past healthcare fraud oversight under the Biden administration, arguing federal agencies relied on a “pay and chase” model that reimbursed questionable claims before investigating potential fraud.
“The federal government paid claims first and chased fraud after the money was out the door,” Kennedy said. “That approach failed taxpayers. We are ending it.”
Patel said the administration has also expanded efforts to locate healthcare fraud suspects who flee overseas. He pointed to recent arrests in Turkey and the Philippines of defendants accused of large-scale fraud schemes who were returned to the United States to face prosecution.
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The FBI director highlighted the administration’s newly created “Most Wanted Fraudsters” list and announced two additional fugitives had been added.
Patel urged the public to provide information about Khalid Ahmed Satary, who is wanted in connection with an alleged $547 million genetic testing fraud scheme and is believed to be in the United Arab Emirates, and Emylee Thai, who is accused of participating in a separate $90 million genetic testing scheme after allegedly fleeing while under court supervision.