Justice Department says it has prosecuted $500 million in healthcare, COVID fraud claims in 3 states

The Justice Department said this week that it has wrapped up health care fraud investigations in three states which had cost Americans over $500 million among the respective parties.

The announcement comes the same week that the Justice Department created its National Fraud Enforcement Division, which is a major step in the Trump administration's efforts to crack down on misuse of public funds.

The Justice Department said it has finished its healthcare fraud investigations in California, Florida and Nevada and secured either guilty pleas, settlements or sentences.

“Thanks to the leadership of President Donald Trump, the department, working closely with the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, is supercharging efforts to take down every fraudster and bring them to justice,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said. “In one day, the Department prosecuted the theft of a half-billion in taxpayer dollars. All those ripping off the American people are on notice.”

The largest haul came from California, where a scheme defrauded American consumers of $269.1 million, according to the Daily Signal. Paul Randall, 66, of Orange, pleaded guilty this week for his role in the pharmacy plot. Two others pleaded guilty in the scheme in 2024 and 2025.

The second-largest came from Florida, where a company agreed to pay $107 million in a civil penalty and a $27.6 million fine after it obtained $141.5 million in unwarranted subsidies in an Affordable Care Act scheme.

The government secured $26 million in a Nevada COVID-19 tax credit scheme. The woman behind the fraud scheme was sentenced to four years in prison after she pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to defraud the United States by claiming nearly $100 million in COVID-19 employment tax credits.

The Internal Revenue Service paid out approximately $33 million as a result of the Nevada scheme.

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