A daily roundup of federal enforcement actions, indictments, and settlements from the Department of Justice and related agencies.
The Department of Justice continued its aggressive enforcement posture this week with a series of actions spanning national security, healthcare fraud, civil rights enforcement, and financial crime. From a landmark False Claims Act settlement targeting corporate DEI practices to the arrest of a former Army employee accused of leaking classified information, the past several days illustrate the breadth of federal law enforcement priorities under Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
IBM Pays $17 Million in First-Ever DEI-Related False Claims Act Settlement
On April 10, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced that International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) agreed to pay $17,077,043 to resolve allegations that the technology giant violated the False Claims Act by failing to comply with anti-discrimination requirements in its federal contracts. The settlement marks the first resolution under the DOJ’s Civil Rights Fraud Initiative, which was established in May 2025 to investigate and prosecute what the Department characterizes as illegal diversity, equity, and inclusion practices by federal contractors.
According to the DOJ, the settlement resolves allegations that IBM maintained discriminatory employment practices including setting workforce representation goals based on protected characteristics, tying incentive compensation to DEI goals, using diversity-based interview slates, and restricting access to employment and educational programs on the basis of race and sex. Federal contracts typically require contractors to certify that they will not discriminate against employees or applicants on the basis of race, color, national origin, or sex.
IBM denied the government’s allegations but received settlement credit for cooperating with the investigation, making early factual disclosures, and voluntarily terminating or modifying the programs at issue. The case was handled by the Justice Department’s Civil Division, Commercial Litigation Branch, Fraud Section. Legal analysts suggest this settlement may signal an expanded enforcement approach that could affect thousands of government contractors nationwide.
Former Army Employee Arrested for Leaking Classified National Defense Information
On April 8, the FBI arrested Courtney Williams, 40, of Wagram, North Carolina, on charges of leaking classified national defense information to unauthorized individuals, including a journalist. Williams, who held a Top Secret security clearance as an employee supporting a Special Military Unit of the Army, was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly violating 18 U.S.C. § 793(d), which criminalizes the unauthorized disclosure of national defense information.
According to the indictment, between 2022 and 2025, Williams communicated extensively with the journalist via telephone and text messages. The two had over 10 hours of telephone calls and exchanged more than 180 messages during this period. In one exchange, the journalist identified themselves and stated they sought information about the Special Military Unit for an upcoming article and book. The journalist subsequently published a book and article that named Williams as a source and attributed specific statements to her — some of which contained classified national defense information. Williams allegedly also made unauthorized disclosures via her social media accounts.
FBI Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the Counterintelligence and Espionage Division stated that the indictment should serve as a warning to current and former clearance holders. This case continues a pattern of leak prosecutions that underscore the government’s determination to hold accountable those who compromise sensitive information.
DOJ Disrupts Russian GRU DNS Hijacking Network
On April 7, the Department of Justice and the FBI announced a court-authorized technical operation to neutralize the U.S. portion of a network of small office and home office routers compromised by Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff (GRU), specifically Military Unit 26165. The GRU used the compromised routers to facilitate malicious Domain Name System hijacking operations against worldwide targets of intelligence interest to the Russian government, including individuals in the military, government, and critical infrastructure sectors.
According to court filings, since at least 2024, GRU actors exploited known vulnerabilities to steal credentials for thousands of TP-Link routers worldwide. The actors accessed compromised routers without authorization, manipulated their settings to redirect DNS requests to GRU-controlled servers, and implemented an automated filtering process to identify DNS requests warranting interception. For selected targets, the GRU’s DNS resolvers provided fraudulent records for domains mimicking legitimate services — including Microsoft Outlook Web Access — to facilitate actor-in-the-middle attacks against encrypted communications.
The disruption was led by FBI field offices in Boston and Philadelphia, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and the National Security Division’s National Security Cyber Section. Black Lotus Labs at Lumen and Microsoft Threat Intelligence provided technical contributions. The operation underscores the ongoing cyber threat posed by Russian military intelligence to American networks and infrastructure.
$100 Million Stolen Identity Tax Refund Fraud Scheme Charged
Federal indictments were unsealed in the Northern District of Georgia and the Western District of Texas charging Akinade Adedeji Raheem, 43, of Atlanta, Georgia, and Abayomi Quadri Eletu, 42, of the United Kingdom and Nigeria, with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, money laundering, aggravated identity theft, and other crimes arising from a scheme to defraud the IRS using stolen identities.
According to the indictment, between 2018 and 2023, Eletu, Raheem, and others obtained identifying information for tax professionals and taxpayers — including names, addresses, and Social Security numbers — by creating online accounts with the IRS and requesting private taxpayer information. The conspirators allegedly changed taxpayer addresses to addresses they controlled and submitted change-of-address requests to the U.S. Postal Service to cause taxpayer mail to be forwarded to co-conspirator addresses. Using this stolen information, they electronically filed more than 300 false tax returns claiming over $100 million in fraudulent refunds from the IRS.
The cases are being prosecuted by Senior Litigation Counsel Michael C. Boteler and Trial Attorney Michael Jones of the Criminal Division’s Tax Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Pearce for the Northern District of Georgia, with substantial assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas. The charges are allegations; all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Florida Nursing Assistant Sentenced to Nine Years for $11.4 Million Medicare Fraud
A federal judge sentenced a Florida nursing assistant to nine years in prison for orchestrating an $11.4 million health care fraud scheme targeting Medicare beneficiaries. After a six-day trial in January 2026, a federal jury in the Southern District of Florida convicted the defendant, identified as Cruz, of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, four counts of health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to make false statements relating to health care matters, and three counts of structuring financial transactions.
Court records indicate that Cruz received several hundred thousand dollars in personal bank withdrawals from the fraudulent scheme, frequently withdrawing cash on consecutive days at different bank branches in South Florida in amounts just under the $10,000 bank reporting threshold — a textbook structuring violation. Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the newly created National Fraud Enforcement Division stated that medical professionals who betray the public’s trust will be held fully accountable.
The sentencing came just days after the DOJ formally established the National Fraud Enforcement Division on April 7, signaling that healthcare fraud remains a top priority. The FBI and HHS Office of Inspector General investigated the case.
Chinese National Servicemember Indicted for Obstruction
On April 14, a federal grand jury in Charleston, South Carolina, returned a two-count indictment charging Yuan Li, 35, a Chinese national residing in the United States, with conspiracy to obstruct justice and attempting to obstruct an investigation. Li is described as a servicemember in the case filing from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina.
While the full details of the underlying investigation remain under seal, the indictment of a Chinese national on obstruction charges in a military context raises questions about potential counterintelligence dimensions. The case comes just weeks after a separate indictment in March 2026 charged three individuals with conspiring to divert cutting-edge U.S. artificial intelligence technology to China. Together, these actions reflect the DOJ’s sustained focus on protecting national security against foreign intelligence threats.
Investment Adviser Pleads Guilty in $160 Million Fraud Scheme
On April 3, the DOJ and SEC announced parallel enforcement actions against Vincent J. Camarda, a Long Island-based investment adviser and CEO of A.G. Morgan Financial Advisors LLC, in connection with an alleged fraud scheme that took at least $138 million from more than 430 investors, many of whom were elderly and financially unsophisticated. Camarda pleaded guilty the same day to securities fraud and investment adviser fraud and faces up to 20 years in prison and restitution exceeding $160 million.
According to court filings, the scheme collapsed in early 2024 when mining and coffee shop companies connected to the fraudulent investments defaulted. Investors collectively lost approximately $123 million in unreturned principal. The SEC’s civil complaint charges all three defendants with violations of the Securities Act of 1933, Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and Investment Advisers Act of 1940, and seeks injunctions, disgorgement, civil penalties, and permanent industry bars. The criminal case was handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York in coordination with the SEC’s New York Regional Office.
National Fraud Enforcement Division Established
On April 7, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche formally established the National Fraud Enforcement Division within the Department of Justice. The new division’s core mission is the investigation and prosecution of individuals who steal or fraudulently misuse taxpayer dollars. Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald assumed operational control of three existing Criminal Division units: the Tax Section, the Health Care Fraud Unit, and the Market, Government, and Consumer Fraud Unit.
The consolidation reflects the Trump Administration’s emphasis on combating fraud within federal benefit programs. The Fraud Division supports the President’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a whole-of-government effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance. The establishment of this division is expected to streamline prosecution of fraud targeting Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and other federal programs, and early results — including the healthcare fraud sentencing described above — suggest the unit is already operationally active.
Cases to Watch
Several of this week’s enforcement actions warrant deeper investigation. The IBM settlement under the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative could reshape compliance obligations for federal contractors across the technology sector and beyond. The Courtney Williams leak prosecution may reveal details about sensitive military operations and the government’s evolving approach to unauthorized disclosures to the media. The Yuan Li obstruction indictment in South Carolina, involving a Chinese national servicemember, may intersect with broader counterintelligence investigations at a time of heightened focus on technology transfer to China. And the structural reorganization represented by the National Fraud Enforcement Division merits ongoing scrutiny to assess whether consolidated authority translates into more effective prosecution of fraud against federal programs.
This digest is compiled from DOJ press releases, federal court filings, and related coverage. All individuals charged are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The Investigative Journal will continue to monitor these cases as they develop.