The Investigative Journal’s daily survey of federal enforcement activity. All items below are drawn from Justice Department press releases and court records published August 31 – September 1, 2026. Charges described in indictments are allegations only, and all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law. Civil settlements resolve allegations without a determination of liability.
FBI seizes $560,000 in cryptocurrency bound for Hamas, takes down fundraising infrastructure
The Justice Department announced Tuesday the disruption of an ongoing fundraising and recruitment operation run by Hamas, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, through court-authorized seizures of more than $560,000 in cryptocurrency and the capture of domains and servers — including AlQassam.ps, the main website of the group’s military wing, the Al Qassam Brigades.
According to unsealed seizure warrants executed on March 25, 2025, June 25, 2025, and October 10, 2025, investigators used information from multiple human sources to trace and seize cryptocurrency donations routed through a rotating set of wallet addresses advertised in an encrypted group chat claiming association with Hamas. Filings indicate the FBI’s Albuquerque Field Office, working with the Bureau’s Counterterrorism and Cyber Divisions, took control of the seized infrastructure and used it to intercept further donations. The Department published the March 2025, June 2025, October 2025, July 2026, and August 2026 seizure affidavits alongside the announcement.
The significance may extend well beyond the dollar figure. The FBI says it obtained information on thousands of individuals worldwide who contacted Hamas online to donate or attempt to donate — a data set the Bureau states “will be used in the FBI’s future counterterrorism efforts.” “These seizures deprive Hamas of resources it relies on to recruit and radicalize individuals online and finance barbaric attacks like the one on October 7, 2023,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the National Security Division are handling the case.
American who acted as agent for China’s Ministry of State Security sentenced to two years
Thomas Weir Pauken II, 51, a U.S. citizen who lived and worked in the People’s Republic of China, was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison and 36 months of supervised release — with no overseas travel — for acting within the United States as an agent of a foreign government.
Court documents indicate that from at least 2019 until February 2026, Pauken took taskings from a handler he knew as “Cathy,” whom prosecutors tied to China’s Ministry of State Security: meeting potential intelligence assets in the United States, supplying them with dedicated communication devices, and relaying their reports back to his handler. Filings state Pauken received at least $100,000 for the work, and that he separately sold reports to a group of Wuhan-based clients seeking information about U.S. technology and the Justice Department itself — clients who, according to the government, wanted him to recruit an expert to assist in cyber espionage.
The Eastern District of Virginia prosecution is a reminder that Beijing’s intelligence services recruit Americans for access, not just information. “Pauken exploited his U.S. citizenship and corresponding ability to travel to the U.S. without restriction in order to support Chinese Ministry of State Security operations,” Eisenberg said in the Department’s release.
Nine alleged Makk Ballers gang members charged with RICO conspiracy and murder in Virginia
A second superseding indictment unsealed Tuesday in the Eastern District of Virginia charges nine alleged members of the Cautious District subset of the United Bloods Nation — commonly called the Makk Ballers — with racketeering conspiracy, murder and attempted murder in aid of racketeering, and firearms offenses tied to gang activity across eastern Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware.
The indictment alleges that in February 2024, three defendants — Tyvon Smith, Christopher Monfiston, and Ky’riq Weathers — traveled to Accomack County, hid in the woods near a residence, and ambushed and fatally shot a man identified as Victim 1. In a separate incident that month, gang members allegedly fired dozens of rounds into a home where a rival was sleeping, leaving a second victim partially paralyzed. Prosecutors say search warrants recovered numerous firearms forensically traced to gang shootings. Three defendants face a mandatory minimum of life in prison if convicted for the murder; the case is being prosecuted by the Criminal Division’s Violent Crime and Racketeering Section alongside the local U.S. Attorney’s office. An indictment is an allegation only, and all nine defendants are presumed innocent.
Honeywell Aerospace pays $2 million to resolve cybersecurity False Claims Act allegations on defense contract
Honeywell Aerospace Inc. agreed to pay $2,042,518 to resolve allegations that, from April 2020 through December 2023, a Honeywell business unit submitted false claims for payment while failing to comply with cybersecurity controls required by NIST Special Publication 800-171 on a U.S. Department of Defense contract.
The case began as a whistleblower suit — United States ex rel. Rachel Tenney v. Honeywell International Inc., No. 3:22-cv-129 (W.D.N.C.) — and the relator, a former Honeywell employee, will receive $375,823 of the recovery. “Government contractors that obtain defense information in administering their contracts must follow required cybersecurity standards,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Civil Division. The settlement resolves allegations only; there has been no determination of liability. The action signals that cybersecurity-compliance enforcement against defense contractors remains an active False Claims Act lane, with insiders positioned to initiate cases.
Ohio State pays $2.1 million over undisclosed China ties in federal research grants
Ohio State University agreed to pay $2.1 million to resolve civil allegations that it failed to disclose employees’ affiliations with, and funding from, the People’s Republic of China in applications for NASA and National Science Foundation research grants awarded between November 2012 and August 2023.
According to the settlement, annual faculty activity reports submitted internally at OSU since 2014 identified affiliations with PRC universities and state-run research organizations that the university did not pass on to NASA or NSF. Filings further indicate OSU learned in 2019 that a principal investigator on NASA grants was a participant in the PRC’s Thousand Talents recruitment program but did not notify the agencies until 2023. The settlement agreement includes a compliance component, and the claims resolved are allegations only. The matter reflects continued research-security enforcement against universities — an area the Administration has prioritized through its Task Force to Eliminate Fraud and the new National Fraud Enforcement Division.
Former federal-employee union president convicted of $1 million fraud
A federal jury in Greenbelt, Maryland, convicted Kimberly Goodwin, 54, former president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 2419 — a union representing roughly 500 National Institutes of Health employees — of wire fraud conspiracy and eight counts of money laundering.
Evidence at trial showed that Goodwin routed approximately $1 million in union funds, much of it received from employee grievance settlements with NIH, to a sham consulting company she owned, for services never rendered or grossly overbilled, between 2019 and 2022. Trial evidence indicated the local had not held a meeting since 2020 and went into receivership in 2022 after its accounts ran dry; union money was spent on personal items including a $7,400 massage chair, according to the Department. Goodwin’s co-conspirator, former Local 2419 secretary-treasurer Kelleigh Williams, was convicted in 2025. A sentencing date will be set by the court.
Eight U.S. Attorneys join DOT and DHS in trucking-fraud crackdown
The Justice Department on Monday announced Joint Task Force Crossroads of America, a multi-state effort with the Departments of Transportation and Homeland Security targeting fraud in the commercial trucking industry — from commercial driver’s license (CDL) mills to identity-document fraud and unauthorized employment.
The rollout pairs U.S. Attorneys’ offices in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio with FMCSA regulatory action: the emergency removal of more than 110 driver-training providers from the federal Training Provider Registry, over 160 additional proposed removals following nearly 400 investigations across 40 states, and a nationwide audit of third-party CDL skills testers. FMCSA states that drivers certified by the 160-plus providers facing proposed removal are linked to 239 commercial-vehicle-related fatalities. On the enforcement side, Homeland Security Investigations said it served notices of inspection at more than 200 driving schools across 23 states in a single-day sweep. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Department will “prosecute culprits, and protect America’s roads.”
In brief: denaturalization of convicted rapist finalized
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York entered judgment revoking the naturalization of Gurmeet Singh, who was convicted in New York of first-degree rape and second-degree kidnapping as a sexually motivated felony committed weeks before he applied for citizenship in 2011 and concealed throughout his naturalization proceedings. The August 26 order followed a Justice Department complaint filed February 2 and reflects the Department’s stated intent to “move expeditiously on denaturalization referrals.”
What TIJ is watching
Several threads from this cycle warrant deeper reporting. First, the trucking task force: FMCSA’s claim that drivers certified by 160-plus training providers are linked to 239 fatalities invites a records-based accounting of which schools, which states’ licensing agencies, and which carriers were involved — and whether state oversight failures carry consequences beyond withheld highway funds. Second, the Hamas seizures: the FBI’s acknowledgment that it now holds data on thousands of attempted donors raises questions about how that information will be used and what prosecutions may follow. Third, the Honeywell settlement extends a line of cybersecurity False Claims Act resolutions against defense contractors; the size of the whistleblower share will not be lost on compliance staff across the industry. Finally, the Ohio State settlement suggests research-security enforcement against universities is far from finished — the settlement documents reference additional employees whose PRC affiliations went undisclosed.
Sourcing and fairness: This digest is compiled from official Justice Department press releases and publicly filed court documents linked above. The Investigative Journal has not independently contacted counsel for the defendants named in pending matters; responses received will be added to future coverage. Allegations in indictments and civil complaints are not findings of liability or guilt.