DOJ Watch is The Investigative Journal’s daily review of federal enforcement activity, compiled from official U.S. Department of Justice press releases and the court records they cite.
The Justice Department’s public docket in the 48 hours ending July 16, 2026 stretched across nearly the full spectrum of federal law enforcement — from Chinese economic espionage and Iranian sanctions evasion to bank-insider money laundering, Medicare billing fraud, customs-duty evasion, tax crime, and a violent human-trafficking ring. This edition reviews seven notable actions announced by the Department and its U.S. Attorney’s offices, each drawn from the primary record, with allegations carefully distinguished from adjudicated findings.
1. Former Federal Reserve adviser sentenced in China information-sharing case
John Harold Rogers, 64, a former senior adviser at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, was sentenced on July 15 to 38 months in federal prison for making false statements to federal investigators about sharing restricted Federal Reserve information with Chinese intelligence operatives, according to a Justice Department announcement. U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich also imposed 12 months of supervised release; prosecutors had requested a 60-month term.
Court records indicate Rogers, who holds a Ph.D. in economics and worked in the Fed’s Division of International Finance from 2010 to 2021, developed a clandestine relationship beginning in 2017 with an individual the Department identified as a Chinese intelligence operative he met at a conference in China. Prosecutors said Rogers stripped classification markings from documents, forwarded sensitive materials to his personal email account and to a professor at China’s state-run Fudan University, and met his contact in Chinese hotel rooms under the guise of teaching academic “classes.” A federal jury convicted him on Feb. 3 of making false statements after he told the Fed’s Office of Inspector General in a 2020 interview that he had “never” shared restricted information outside the Board.
The Department framed the matter as a counterintelligence concern rather than a classic espionage prosecution — Rogers was convicted of false statements, not of transmitting the information itself. Officials said the material he could access, including advance detail on Federal Open Market Committee deliberations, would carry significant value to a government trading in U.S. Treasury securities. The case was prosecuted by the National Security Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. (Press Release No. 26-787.)
2. Massachusetts engineer convicted in Iran export scheme tied to IRGC drones
A federal jury in Boston convicted Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi, 43, a dual U.S.–Iranian national from Natick, Massachusetts, of conspiring to violate and violating U.S. sanctions and export-control laws governing Iran, the Justice Department announced on July 14 following a 14-day trial. Sentencing before U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani is set for Oct. 13; each count carries a statutory maximum of 20 years.
According to court documents, Sadeghi helped procure U.S.-origin microelectronics — including accelerometers, gyroscopes, and inertial measurement units — that were routed through a Switzerland-based front company to an Iranian firm that manufactures navigation systems for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the United States designated a foreign terrorist organization in 2019. Filings state that a drone recovered after the January 2024 attack on the Tower 22 outpost in Jordan, which killed three U.S. service members, used a navigation system produced by that Iranian company.
Sadeghi’s co-defendant, Mohammad Abedini of Tehran, remains a fugitive, and the allegations against him are unproven. The prosecution was handled by the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts. (Press Release No. 26-768.)
3. Two TD Bank insiders sentenced in money-laundering and fraud schemes
Two former TD Bank employees were sentenced this week for exploiting their positions to facilitate financial crime, the Justice Department said. Wilfredo Aquino, 47, of Manhattan, received 46 months for helping a money-laundering network move funds through TD Bank accounts, while Edward Low, 31, of Flushing, New York, received 24 months for wire fraud and falsifying bank records.
Court documents state that Aquino, an assistant store manager, processed roughly 1,680 official bank checks totaling more than $92 million for a network led by Da Ying Sze — who separately pleaded guilty in 2022 to a $653 million laundering conspiracy — and repeatedly failed to identify the true source of large cash deposits on required currency-transaction reports, despite a colleague warning that the activity “looks like money laundering.” Prosecutors said Aquino accepted more than $11,000 in retail gift cards for his assistance. Low, according to the Department, took at least $26,700 in bribes and facilitated more than $484,000 in fraud by passing confidential customer information to outside co-conspirators, then falsified records at a second financial institution. Both men pleaded guilty earlier this year.
The case, prosecuted by the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, adds to the scrutiny TD Bank has faced over its anti-money-laundering controls. (Press Release No. 26-789.)
4. Labcorp to pay $14.5 million over urine-drug-testing claims
Laboratory Corporation of America agreed to pay $14.5 million to resolve allegations that it billed Medicare for medically unnecessary urine drug testing under a panel it marketed as “ToxAssure Comprehensive,” the Justice Department announced on July 15. The settlement covers conduct from January 2018 through November 2023.
As part of the agreement, Labcorp acknowledged that it routinely billed Medicare simultaneously for both an all-inclusive presumptive test code and the highest-tier definitive test code for the same patient, sample, and date of service, and that for some substances it performed definitive testing without first conducting a presumptive test to establish necessity. The company represented that it has ceased the billing practice and received cooperation credit under Department guidelines for disclosure and remediation. The government emphasized that the claims are allegations only and that the settlement contains no determination of liability. (Press Release No. 26-783.)
5. Packaging supplier and CEO settle customs-evasion allegations for $7.3 million
New York Packaging II LLC, doing business as Redi-Bag USA, and its chief executive, Jeffrey Rabiea, agreed to pay $7.3 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations that they evaded antidumping duties on plastic retail carrier bags manufactured in China, the Justice Department announced on July 15. Filings indicate the company misrepresented the bags’ country of origin as Hong Kong — when they were made in China and transshipped — to avoid duties that could reach 77.57 percent.
The government alleged the company concealed the merchandise’s Chinese origin by directing employees and the manufacturer to remove “Made in China” markings and by canceling orders slated for customs inspection. The matter originated as a whistleblower suit filed by a former contracted sales representative, who will receive roughly $1.33 million of the recovery. The claims are allegations only, with no determination of liability. The settlement is one of a growing series of trade-fraud resolutions the Department has pursued through a cross-agency task force launched in 2025. (Press Release No. 26-781.)
6. Texas man indicted over trust tax shelter and retaliatory liens against officials
A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Texas indicted Roger Napoleon Grant of Plano on charges tied to the promotion of an abusive trust tax shelter and the filing of false liens against federal officials, according to an indictment unsealed July 13 and described by the Justice Department. Prosecutors allege Grant used a multi-tiered structure of sham trusts and a purported charitable foundation to conceal income, charging clients between $12,500 and $50,000 for the arrangement while reporting about $80,521 in personal income over a six-year span in which he allegedly received millions.
The indictment further alleges that after learning in April 2025 that he was under criminal investigation, Grant retaliated by filing false liens against government officials, including the U.S. Attorney General, the Acting IRS Commissioner, and a Justice Department attorney. He is charged with five counts of tax evasion, ten counts of aiding the filing of false returns, and ten counts of filing false retaliatory liens. An indictment is only an allegation, and Grant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. (Press Release No. 26-780.)
7. Nine plead guilty in Nashville sex-trafficking ring
Nine Venezuelan nationals pleaded guilty to human-trafficking, alien-smuggling, and money-laundering charges connected to a sex-trafficking operation run out of Nashville-area motels, the Justice Department announced on July 15. Court documents describe a scheme that recruited vulnerable Venezuelan women with false employment promises, then coerced them into commercial sex to repay inflated smuggling debts under threats of violence against them and their families.
Prosecutors identified Yilibeth Carmen Rivero-de Caldera and her son, Kleiver Daniel Mota Rivero, as the leaders of the organization, which enlisted family members and associates in supporting roles. Eight defendants pleaded guilty to charges carrying a potential maximum of life in prison; a ninth faces up to 20 years. Sentencing is scheduled for the week of Nov. 16. The prosecution arose from a Homeland Security Task Force investigation supported by the Department’s Joint Task Force Alpha. (Press Release No. 26-788.)
Cases warranting deeper TIJ investigation
Several threads from this week’s docket merit sustained reporting. The Rogers and Sadeghi cases both point to a persistent counterintelligence and export-control challenge involving China and Iran, and TIJ will continue tracking how the National Security Division prioritizes economic-espionage and technology-transfer prosecutions — and how much of the underlying conduct is charged directly versus resolved through collateral counts such as false statements. The Redi-Bag settlement, meanwhile, is one data point in a broader wave of customs and trade-fraud enforcement, much of it tied to Chinese transshipment; the whistleblower incentives driving those recoveries, and the size of the duties at stake, warrant a closer institutional look.
The tax docket also bears watching. Beyond the Grant indictment, the Department this week reported an Idaho tax-evasion indictment (July 16), a Hoboken accountant charged with preparing false returns, and an 18-month sentence for a Nevada businesswoman who sought millions in fraudulent COVID-19 employment tax credits — a category of pandemic-relief fraud that continues to generate prosecutions years after the programs closed. TIJ will monitor whether the newly created National Fraud Enforcement Division, stood up in April 2026, meaningfully changes the pace or profile of these cases in the months ahead.
Sourcing and standards: Every case above is drawn from official Justice Department press releases and the court records they cite; primary links are embedded throughout. Settlement figures reflect agreements in which the settling parties did not admit liability except where expressly noted, and indictments and complaints described here contain allegations that remain unproven. Individuals named in pending matters are presumed innocent unless and until convicted. TIJ extends the opportunity to reply to any party named in a pending case. Compiled for The Investigative Journal by Eduardo Bacci.