The Investigative Journal’s daily survey of federal criminal and civil enforcement, drawn from official Department of Justice press releases, U.S. Attorney announcements and federal court filings.
Federal prosecutors closed out April with a string of high-dollar resolutions and sprawling international takedowns, capped by a generational sentencing of opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma in Newark. Records released this week by the Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney’s Offices around the country also show meaningful movement on transnational fraud, public corruption, trade enforcement, consumer-safety crime and human smuggling. The cases below were unsealed, sentenced or otherwise advanced between April 23 and April 29, 2026.
1. Purdue Pharma sentenced to pay more than $5 billion in opioid case
Purdue Pharma LP was sentenced on April 28 in U.S. District Court in Newark, New Jersey, and ordered to pay criminal penalties of more than $5 billion for its role in the prescription opioid epidemic, according to a DOJ Office of Public Affairs press release. The court imposed a $3.544 billion criminal fine, to be assessed through Purdue’s bankruptcy proceedings, plus $2 billion in criminal forfeiture, of which up to $1.775 billion may be credited based on value transferred to state, local and tribal governments if Purdue emerges from bankruptcy as a public benefit company directing proceeds to opioid abatement.
According to court documents, between 2007 and 2017 Purdue marketed its opioid products to hundreds of prescribers the company had reason to believe were writing prescriptions without a legitimate medical purpose. Filings indicate Purdue defrauded the Drug Enforcement Administration by misrepresenting the effectiveness of programs designed to prevent illegal diversion, and used those very prescriptions to justify requests to manufacture more product. Purdue also paid kickbacks to prescribers through its doctor-speaker program and to an electronic health-record platform.
Purdue had pleaded guilty in November 2020 to a three-count felony information charging conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to violate the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and two counts of conspiracy to violate the federal Anti-Kickback Statute. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche called the resolution “a prime example of the Department’s effort to redress past wrongs by rooting out and punishing unlawful conduct by companies that have contributed to the national crisis.” The FBI Washington Field Office investigated, with assistance from HHS-OIG and DEA. The case was prosecuted by the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Districts of New Jersey and Vermont.
2. International takedown of “pig-butchering” scam centers nets 276 arrests
The Justice Department on April 23 announced the dismantling of at least nine cryptocurrency-investment scam compounds and the arrest of at least 276 individuals, in coordinated action with Dubai Police and the Royal Thai Police. According to the DOJ release, an indictment and two criminal complaints unsealed in the Southern District of California charge six defendants — Burmese national Thet Min Nyi, Indonesian nationals Wiliang Awang, Andreas Chandra and Lisa Mariam, and two fugitives — with wire fraud and money-laundering conspiracy tied to scam operations branded “Ko Thet Company,” “Sanduo Group” and “Giant Company.”
The schemes operated through “pig-butchering,” a fraud pattern in which scammers cultivate trust through bogus friendships or romance before steering victims into fake cryptocurrency investment platforms. Filings allege the operators encouraged victims to borrow against retirement accounts and from family members, then drained the deposits once they hit attacker-controlled wallets. Investigators say losses run into the millions of dollars across multiple U.S. states. The FBI’s Operation Level Up, a separate but related San Diego- and Phoenix-based initiative, has notified nearly 9,000 victims and prevented an estimated $562 million in losses since 2024, the department said.
The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California and the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section. The defendants face statutory maxima of 20 years in prison on each count. The international cooperation — particularly with the UAE Ministry of Interior and the Chinese Ministry of Public Security on a U.S.-led financial-fraud case — is highly unusual and warrants further reporting on the diplomatic and intelligence-sharing arrangements that made the takedown possible.
3. Special Forces soldier indicted over Polymarket bets on Maduro raid
U.S. Army Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, an active-duty Special Forces operator, was indicted in the Southern District of New York on April 23 on wire-fraud and related counts for allegedly using classified information about Operation Absolute Resolve — the U.S. military operation that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro on January 3 — to win roughly $410,000 in bets placed on the prediction-market platform Polymarket, according to NPR and CNBC.
The indictment alleges Van Dyke opened a Polymarket account on or about December 26, 2025 and, in the days leading up to the operation, placed approximately $34,000 in wagers on contracts asking whether U.S. forces would be in Venezuela by January 31, whether Maduro would be out of office by that date, and related questions. Records suggest Van Dyke later attempted to delete his Polymarket account once news of the raid began circulating. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a parallel civil action. Van Dyke was released on April 24 in Raleigh, N.C., on an unsecured $250,000 bond and ordered to appear in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York said prediction markets “are not a haven for using misappropriated confidential or classified information for personal gain.” The case is the first U.S. criminal prosecution centered on prediction-market wagers, and arrives as the industry faces growing scrutiny in Washington and at the state level. Israeli authorities filed analogous charges in February against individuals accused of betting on classified Iranian operations. The case is one TIJ will follow closely for its implications for both the prediction-market sector and the handling of classified operational information by deployed personnel.
4. Hawaii County housing-bribery conspirators sentenced
Three men were sentenced for their roles in a multimillion-dollar bribery conspiracy involving the Hawaii County Office of Housing and Community Development, the Justice Department announced. Former Big Island businessman Rajesh Pankaj Budhabhatti, 65, of Morro Bay, California, received 90 months in prison; attorney Gary Charles Zamber, 56, of Keaau, Hawaii, received 70 months; and former attorney Paul Joseph Sulla, 79, of Hilo, was sentenced on April 23 to 60 months. A fourth defendant, the bribed Housing Specialist Alan Scott Rudo, has pleaded guilty and awaits sentencing.
According to evidence presented at trial, the defendants conspired to pay Rudo bribes and kickbacks totaling roughly $1.93 million to secure approval of three affordable housing agreements that ultimately delivered them more than $11 million in land and excess affordable housing credits. Filings indicate that despite the contractual obligations, none of the defendants’ development entities — Luna Loa Developments LLC, West View Developments LLC and Plumeria at Waikoloa LLC — built a single housing unit. The FBI Honolulu Field Office investigated. Trial Attorney William J. Gullotta of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mohammad Khatib and Margaret Nammar are prosecuting.
5. Queens pharmacy owner sentenced for $24.4 million Medicare laundering scheme
Taesung “Terry” Kim, 61, of Harrison, New York, was sentenced on April 28 to 63 months in prison for conspiring to launder the proceeds of a $24.4 million pharmacy-fraud scheme, according to a DOJ press release. Kim co-owned several retail pharmacies in Brooklyn and Queens. Court documents indicate that between 2015 and 2022 Kim’s pharmacies submitted approximately $24.4 million in claims to Medicare and Medicaid for medically unnecessary prescription drugs, with prescriptions secured through cash kickbacks and in-kind benefits to medical providers and supermarket gift certificates and cash to purported patients.
The court ordered Kim to pay $24.4 million in restitution and to forfeit $6 million in fraud proceeds, including bank accounts and real property. Co-conspirator Feng “Jeff” Jiang of Flushing was sentenced in October 2025 to 15 months. The case was investigated by HHS-OIG and the FBI New York Field Office and prosecuted by the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. The case is among the first to be referenced by the newly created National Fraud Enforcement Division, announced April 7, 2026 and led by Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald.
6. Boise Cascade pleads guilty to Lacey Act violation in $30 million plywood scheme
Boise Cascade Company, the publicly traded distributor headquartered in Idaho, pleaded guilty and was sentenced for a felony Lacey Act violation tied to a hardwood-plywood trafficking scheme, according to the DOJ Office of Public Affairs. The company was ordered to pay a $6.382 million fine — twice the gross profit derived from the illegal wood — and to implement a corporate compliance plan. According to filings, Boise Cascade’s Pompano, Florida distribution center purchased more than $30 million in plywood from Horizon Plywood between 2018 and 2021, knowing or willfully blind to the fact that Horizon was transshipping Chinese-origin product through Malaysia to evade countervailing and anti-dumping duties.
Court documents note that even after federal agents executed a search warrant at Horizon’s South Florida warehouse in January 2021, Boise Cascade placed at least 10 additional birch-plywood orders in the two weeks that followed. The case is the third federal criminal action arising from the Horizon scheme; Horizon principals Noel and Kelsy Quintana were sentenced in February 2024. The matter was prosecuted by the Environment and Natural Resources Division’s Environmental Crimes Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, with investigative support from Homeland Security Investigations Miami and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
7. New Jersey importer sentenced for hiding fire-prone air conditioners
Royal Sovereign International Inc., a New Jersey appliance importer also doing business as Royal Centurian Inc., was sentenced to pay $395,786 in restitution and an $8 million criminal fine for willfully failing to report dangerously defective air conditioners to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, according to a DOJ release. Filings indicate the company imported and sold more than 33,000 air conditioners manufactured in China between 2008 and 2014; the units used a faulty drain motor that could short-circuit and ignite. The product line has been linked to more than 40 fires and one death — a woman who died in August 2016 from smoke inhalation after her air conditioner caught fire.
According to the criminal information, Royal Sovereign told CPSC in November 2010 that it was aware of only two fire incidents and had stopped selling the product, when in fact the company knew of at least 16 fires and continued to sell. Royal Sovereign also previously agreed to a $16.025 million civil penalty — the statutory maximum — and has permanently ceased operations involving consumer products. The case was prosecuted by the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section under the Department’s Trade Fraud Task Force.
8. Eleven sentenced in Artemis Refund Group online-retailer fraud
Eleven defendants were sentenced in the Northern District of Oklahoma for conspiring to commit wire fraud as part of the self-styled “Artemis Refund Group” (ARG), a refund-fraud collective that targeted Amazon, Walmart, Target, Wayfair, Dell, Kate Spade, Dick’s Sporting Goods, HP and Adidas, among others, between April 2019 and October 2023, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Oklahoma. ARG charged paying customers between 15 and 25 percent of an item’s purchase price to manufacture a fraudulent refund — leaving the customer with both the merchandise and a full refund.
Tyler Dewayne Rogers, 24, of Goleta, California received the longest sentence at 51 months. Antonio Ernesto Munoz, 24, of Palmdale, California received 37 months; Kevin Ramses Rocha, 24, of Littlerock, California received 30 months; and Prit Patel, 24, a Canadian national, received 24 months. Five additional defendants received probation or home detention. Seven other defendants — six in Singapore and one in the United Kingdom — remain at large with active arrest warrants. The case was investigated by the FBI’s Oklahoma City, Birmingham and Seattle Field Offices with cooperation from the targeted retailers.
9. Iranian national charged in long-running alien-smuggling conspiracy
An indictment unsealed April 24 in the Western District of Texas charges Jafar Tafakori, 57, an Iranian national, with conspiracy to bring aliens to the United States and five counts of bringing aliens to the United States for financial gain, according to the DOJ Office of Public Affairs. According to charging documents, between December 2022 and May 2024 Tafakori coordinated transit, lodging and occasionally airline tickets for primarily Iranian nationals routed through South and Central America to the U.S.-Mexico border, charging some clients as much as $30,000.
Colombian authorities arrested Tafakori on April 23 in Pereira, Colombia, pursuant to a U.S. extradition request facilitated by Joint Task Force Alpha and HSI. He faces a mandatory minimum of five years and a maximum of 15 years if convicted on three or more financial-gain counts. The investigation was led by HSI San Antonio with the HSI Human Smuggling Unit, CBP’s National Targeting Center, the Border Patrol’s Del Rio Sector and the Colombian National Police’s TCIU-DIJIN.
Cases warranting deeper TIJ investigation
Three matters from this week’s docket merit additional reporting. First, the multilateral cooperation that enabled the 276-arrest scam-center takedown — including the unusual presence of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security alongside the FBI and Dubai Police — raises questions about information-sharing protocols that warrant a closer look at the underlying liaison arrangements. Second, the Van Dyke prediction-market case is the first U.S. prosecution to test how insider-trading doctrines map onto event-contract markets, and the resolution will shape compliance policy across Polymarket, Kalshi and the broader prediction-market industry. Third, the Boise Cascade plea is the latest data point in an emerging pattern of large U.S. distributors caught in transshipment schemes designed to evade duties on Chinese-origin goods; the structural incentives that allow such schemes to recur deserve further documentation.
An indictment is an allegation; defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. All factual claims in this digest are sourced to public records and DOJ press releases linked above.