The Investigative Journal’s daily survey of federal enforcement activity, compiled from Department of Justice press releases, court filings, and public records.
The Justice Department opened the week with one of its busiest enforcement days of the summer. Monday’s announcements from Main Justice included a $46 million criminal and civil resolution with a North Carolina drug manufacturer — which the department describes as including the largest Physician Payments Sunshine Act recovery in history — a guilty plea by a Chinese national who prosecutors say tried to smuggle U.S. military communications equipment to the People’s Republic of China, and a $6 million criminal fine against the operator of a containership that triggered the evacuation of a major Charleston bridge in 2024.
Rounding out the docket: a defense contractor’s False Claims Act settlement over untested Navy wire, a Fair Housing Act settlement with a Kentucky landlord, and, from late last week, the jury conviction of a former Goldman Sachs banker in a foreign bribery scheme and a guilty plea in a cryptocurrency-enabled drug money laundering conspiracy. Details on each action, with links to the underlying records, follow.
Veloxis Pharmaceuticals to Pay Over $46 Million in Kickback Resolution
Veloxis Pharmaceuticals Inc., a drug manufacturer based in Cary, North Carolina, agreed to pay over $46 million to resolve criminal and civil allegations that it paid kickbacks to induce prescriptions of Envarsus XR, a kidney transplant immunosuppression drug. According to the department, Veloxis entered a deferred prosecution agreement in connection with a criminal information filed Monday in the District of Massachusetts charging conspiracy to violate the federal Anti-Kickback Statute. The filings allege the company paid for lavish meals, alcohol, and luxury resort stays to induce healthcare providers to recommend or prescribe the drug.
The resolution includes a criminal penalty of more than $10 million and a $34.45 million civil settlement of allegations that Veloxis caused false claims to federal healthcare programs by paying kickbacks to hospital personnel and specialty pharmacies. DOJ billed the package as the largest recovery in the history of the Sunshine Act, the law requiring drug makers to report payments to physicians. “Kickbacks can erode medical decision-making, result in unnecessary prescriptions of branded drugs, and waste federal healthcare funds,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Civil Division.
The significance is twofold. A deferred prosecution agreement means Veloxis avoids a conviction if it meets the agreement’s terms — a structure that will draw scrutiny from compliance watchers tracking how the department treats corporate healthcare fraud. And the record Sunshine Act component signals that payment-transparency reporting failures, long treated as an afterthought, now carry real monetary exposure. The civil claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only; there has been no determination of civil liability.
Chinese National Pleads Guilty to Attempting to Obtain U.S. Military Equipment
Dingwei Chen, a 29-year-old citizen of the People’s Republic of China, pleaded guilty in federal court in Salt Lake City to violating the Arms Export Control Act. According to court records cited by the department, Chen attempted to purchase military-grade satellite modems and radios manufactured for the U.S. military — hardware that cannot legally be exported without a State Department license, which is generally not issued for military goods bound for China.
Court records indicate Chen worked with others in China to acquire the systems from foreign arms dealers on the black market, weighing transshipment routes through Switzerland, then Saipan, before settling on smuggling through Mexico. After an initial down payment of more than $40,000, the conspirators switched to cryptocurrency — roughly $30,000 in USDT — reasoning, in their words, that cold wallets are “essentially anonymous bank accounts.” U.S. District Judge David Sam set sentencing for October 19; Chen faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.
“Chen tried to divert sensitive U.S. military technologies to the People’s Republic of China, technologies the PRC could have used against us in the future,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. The case, investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, adds to a growing file of PRC-linked procurement prosecutions in which crypto payments and third-country transshipment are recurring features.
$6 Million Fine After Charleston’s 2024 “Runaway Ship” Incident
MSC Shipmanagement Limited pleaded guilty and was sentenced to pay a $6 million criminal fine and serve four years of probation for failing to report a hazardous condition aboard the containership MSC Michigan VII and for obstructing a National Transportation Safety Board and Coast Guard investigation. The June 2024 incident forced the evacuation of the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge in Charleston, South Carolina, injured two people, damaged ships and piers, and cleared local beaches. The company’s chief engineer, Fernando San Diego San Juan, who previously pleaded guilty, was sentenced to pay a $2,000 fine.
The department drew a pointed comparison to the deadly Baltimore bridge collapse that preceded the Charleston incident by months. “Had the MSC Michigan VII been heading into port instead of out to sea, the result would likely have been catastrophic,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Energy and Natural Resources Division. MSC must also conduct a root-cause analysis of the hazardous conditions aboard the vessel — a document that, if made public, could shed light on fleet-wide maintenance practices at one of the world’s largest shipping groups.
Judd Wire Pays $1.014 Million Over Untested Navy Wire and Cable
Judd Wire Inc. of Turners Falls, Massachusetts, agreed to pay $1,014,000 to resolve False Claims Act allegations that, from September 2011 to August 2021, it failed to perform tests required by 29 wire and cable specifications for products used by the U.S. Navy. Notably, the settlement acknowledges that Judd Wire voluntarily disclosed the lapses, cooperated with investigators, and took remedial measures — earning formal cooperation credit.
The department framed the case as part of the administration’s new Task Force to Eliminate Fraud and National Fraud Enforcement Division, launched this year to consolidate fraud enforcement. The claims resolved are allegations only, with no determination of liability. Still, records suggest a decade-long testing gap in a defense supply chain where, as Navy General Counsel David W. Denton Jr. put it, safety testing “is a critically important part of taking care of our Sailors and Marines.”
Former Goldman Sachs Banker Convicted in Ghana Bribery Scheme
A federal jury in the Eastern District of New York convicted Asante Kwako Berko, 52, a dual U.S.-Ghanaian citizen and former executive director in Goldman Sachs’ investment banking division, for his role in a scheme to bribe Ghanaian officials in connection with the development and financing of a power plant in Ghana. According to trial evidence described by the department, Berko conspired to pay more than $1 million in bribes to officials at multiple levels of Ghana’s government to ensure that Aksa Enerji, a Turkish energy company and Goldman client, won its bid to build and operate the plant during Ghana’s national energy crisis.
Evidence at trial included discussions of a $1 million payment to Ghana’s then-Minister of Power and $5,000 payments to each of five Ghanaian officials during an all-expenses-paid equipment inspection trip to Turkey. The July 2015 parliamentary ratification of the deal was followed by extensive email traffic among the conspirators about bribe payments owed and paid, filings indicate. The conviction — a jury finding, not a mere allegation — is a reminder that foreign bribery enforcement against individuals continues even as corporate FCPA policy has shifted across administrations.
“Money Broker” Admits Laundering $1.9 Million in Drug Proceeds via Crypto
Daniel Gordiano Valenzuela, 60, a Mexican national, pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy for arranging the collection of $1,973,076 in drug proceeds across the United States and their return to Mexico via cryptocurrency and wire transfers. According to court documents, Gordiano Valenzuela operated as a “money broker,” directing a network of co-conspirators who picked up bulk cash nationwide, then took a commission on funds successfully laundered.
The case, investigated by the DEA’s Detroit Field Division and IRS Criminal Investigation and prosecuted in the Eastern District of Kentucky, illustrates the professionalized brokerage layer that connects cartel drug sales to repatriated profits. Sentencing is set for November 19; he faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.
Kentucky Landlord to Pay $150,000 in Fair Housing Harassment Settlement
Danny Bell, owner and manager of rental properties in Somerset, Kentucky, agreed to pay $150,000 to resolve a Justice Department lawsuit alleging he sexually harassed female tenants for over a decade in violation of the Fair Housing Act — including, the complaint alleges, offering to forgive rent in exchange for sexual contact and threatening to evict tenants who refused. Under the proposed consent order, which still requires court approval, Bell must pay $140,000 to harmed tenants and a $10,000 civil penalty, and is barred from managing residential rental properties in the future.
The settlement is part of DOJ’s Sexual Harassment in Housing Initiative, which the department says has filed 53 lawsuits and recovered over $19 million for victims since 2017. The underlying claims were allegations resolved by settlement, not adjudicated findings.
Repeat Offender Pleads Guilty in West Virginia Child Exploitation Case
Justin L. Wiegand, 34, of Kenova, West Virginia, pleaded guilty to receipt of child pornography. According to court documents and statements made in court, Wiegand — a previously convicted sex offender — purchased more than 50 gigabytes of child sexual abuse material through instant messaging apps on multiple occasions between December 2023 and January 2025, paying through an online payments system. Prosecutors say the conduct continued even while he was serving a sentence for a prior state offense.
The case drew in the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service alongside domestic law enforcement, reflecting the cross-border infrastructure of paid CSAM distribution networks. As a repeat offender, Wiegand faces mandatory minimum penalties, according to the department.
Also on the Civil Docket
The department filed complaints against New York, Connecticut, and Vermont challenging state laws that extend in-state tuition and financial aid to students without legal immigration status, which DOJ argues conflicts with federal law by providing benefits to that group that are not available to all U.S. citizens. The filings bring the department’s tally of such suits to 17; DOJ says five earlier suits — in Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Illinois — have produced favorable orders, including at the Fifth Circuit. The three new cases are pending, and the states have not yet responded in court.
What TIJ Is Watching
Three threads from Monday’s docket warrant deeper reporting. First, the Veloxis resolution: the department’s filings describe kickbacks to “hospital personnel and specialty pharmacies,” but do not name the recipients. Cross-referencing CMS Open Payments data against Envarsus prescribing patterns could show which providers accepted the hospitality at issue — and whether any face their own exposure. Second, the Chen plea: court records describe co-conspirators in China and gray-market arms dealers who remain unnamed and, presumably, uncharged. The procurement network’s use of USDT and a Mexico smuggling route mirrors patterns in other recent export-control cases worth mapping systematically. Third, the MSC sentencing requires a root-cause analysis of the hazardous conditions aboard the MSC Michigan VII; whether that analysis becomes public — and what it says about maintenance across MSC’s fleet — is a question TIJ has flagged for follow-up with the Energy and Natural Resources Division.
A note on sourcing and fairness: This digest is compiled from Justice Department press releases and court filings published August 6–10, 2026, linked throughout. Charges and civil complaints are allegations; defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty, and civil settlements are not determinations of liability except where a court has so found. TIJ did not seek comment from counsel for the parties before publication of this wire digest; counsel of record are invited to respond, and responses will be noted in updates to this article.
Featured image: Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building, Washington, D.C. Photo by APK via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.
