Justice Department creates National Fraud Detection Center to combat fraud in government programs

The Justice Department announced Monday the creation of a new center that seeks to combat fraud in government social services programs. 

The creation of the center comes after President Donald Trump named Vice President JD Vance as his "fraud czar" in April, and tapped him to lead a task force that uncovered more than $230 billion in defrauded public funds since its start.

The National Fraud Detection Center is a multi-agency team that is intended to investigate the most serious people defrauding federal government programs. The team will include people from the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, IRS Criminal Investigation, FinCEN, the Treasury Department and inspectors general from 12 agencies.

“The creation of the NFDC marks a decisive shift in how the federal government detects and investigates complex fraud,” Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division said. 

“By breaking down institutional silos, embedding analysts from across the IG community, and leveraging shared technology, the NFDC is actively closing the window of opportunity for bad actors who seek to exploit taxpayer dollars," he continued. "Today’s announcement sends a clear message: if you defraud federal programs, we have the tools and the law enforcement partners to find you.”

The NFDC is part of the Justice Department's fraud division and takes a whole of government approach to eliminate fraud.

"The NFDC presents a unified front to identify fraud across agencies and prosecute the most nefarious criminals, domestic and abroad," the Justice Department said in a news release. 

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.