WASHINGTON — The Justice Department closed the week of Sept. 14 with an unusually broad enforcement docket: a coordinated multi-district election-fraud announcement naming 16 defendants, a 60-year sentence for a former Syrian prison warden, two large health care fraud actions, roughly $32 million in foreign corruption proceeds repatriated to two governments, and a Justice Manual revision that narrows how the Department litigates False Claims Act cases. Taken together, the week’s filings and announcements offer a readable snapshot of where the Department is allocating investigative resources.
What follows is a digest of the most consequential actions, each sourced to the Department’s own public record. Where a matter is a charge, complaint, or civil settlement rather than a conviction, that distinction is noted. Defendants in pending criminal matters are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
1. Sixteen Charged Across Eight Districts in Illegal Voting Cases
The Department announced on Sept. 18 that 16 individuals face charges connected to illegal voting, illegal voter registration, and related election-fraud schemes, according to Press Release 26-1082. The charges span the Northern and Western Districts of Texas, the District of Idaho, the Northern District of Georgia, the District of Massachusetts, the Western District of Wisconsin, the District of New Jersey, and the Eastern District of Michigan.
Per the release, the counts include voting by an alien in a federal election, false statement of citizenship in order to register to vote, and — in several cases — collateral offenses uncovered during the investigations, among them wire fraud, naturalization fraud, passport fraud, theft of government funds, and unlawful firearm purchase and possession. Eight of the 16 defendants are charged in the Northern District of Texas alone. The Department states that a federal grand jury in Boise returned an indictment charging one defendant, identified as Avila Gomez, with eight separate counts spanning voting, identification-document, passport, and firearms offenses.
The announcement follows two similar multi-district packages earlier in September, covering six defendants in California, Kansas, and Louisiana on Sept. 14 and five defendants in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Wisconsin on Sept. 4. The cadence — three coordinated announcements in roughly two weeks, totaling 27 defendants — suggests a sustained referral pipeline rather than isolated prosecutions. The Department’s release carries the standard disclaimer that a complaint, indictment, or information “merely contain accusations,” and that all defendants are presumed innocent.
2. Former Syrian Prison Warden Sentenced to 60 Years
Samir Ousman Alsheikh, 74, was sentenced on Sept. 17 to 60 years in prison following a March 2026 jury conviction in the Central District of California, the Department announced. The jury convicted Alsheikh on six counts: one count of conspiracy to commit torture, three counts of torture, one count of visa fraud, and one count of attempted naturalization fraud.
Court records described in the release indicate Alsheikh headed Adra Prison, also known as Damascus Central Prison, from approximately 2005 to 2008, and that he ordered and participated in the torture of detainees there. Three victims testified at trial. The release states Alsheikh subsequently lied to U.S. immigration authorities about his background to obtain lawful permanent residence and on a later naturalization application. He entered the United States in 2020 and has been in custody since his arrest in July 2024.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Criminal Division characterized Alsheikh as “the highest-ranking former member of the Assad regime to be tried and convicted in person outside of Syria.” The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations in Los Angeles and the FBI’s Chicago field office, working through HSI’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center and the FBI’s International Human Rights Unit, with assistance from Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office in arranging witness interviews.
3. Arizona Clinic Owner Draws 14 Years in $69M Medicaid Case
Rita Ntusa Anagho, 54, of San Tan Valley, Arizona, was sentenced on Sept. 17 to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty in May 2025 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and health care fraud, according to the Department. A licensed nurse practitioner, Anagho owned and operated Tusa Integrated Clinic, LLC, an addiction treatment center.
Court documents cited in the release show that from approximately May 2022 through March 2023, Tusa billed the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System more than $69 million, and that the state program paid approximately $54.9 million on claims the Department characterizes as false and fraudulent. The release states Anagho and co-conspirators targeted patients enrolled in the American Indian Health Care Program, a fee-for-service plan available to Native Americans that reimbursed at higher rates than other AHCCCS plans. Filings further indicate she paid kickbacks to sober-home operators for patient referrals, falsified treatment records, and — after Tusa received a document subpoena — instructed former employees to create fabricated medical records.
The sentence carries roughly $55 million in restitution, forfeiture of nearly $9.5 million seized from seven bank accounts, and forfeiture of approximately $7 million in real estate. The prosecution was handled by the Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, with the FBI and HHS Office of Inspector General investigating. The Department noted its Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program, now comprising nine strike forces, has charged more than 6,200 defendants who collectively billed in excess of $45 billion since 2007.
4. Civil Suit Alleges Georgia Lab Executives Targeted Churches and Senior Homes
The Department filed a False Claims Act complaint on Sept. 17 against Jay Johnson and Austin Whiles, executives of the Atlanta-based clinical laboratory Capstone Diagnostics, along with affiliated entities. The complaint also seeks recovery from Sarah Haslock, Johnson’s former wife, under federal common-law theories.
The complaint alleges two distinct schemes. In the first, church-sponsored health fairs and religious conferences were used to generate genetic testing volume, with the government alleging that physician names, signatures, and standing orders were used without permission to make the testing appear medically necessary and properly ordered. In the second, the government alleges that demand for COVID-19 testing at senior living communities was converted into billing for higher-reimbursing respiratory pathogen panels through community-wide standing orders and order entry by sales personnel rather than treating providers. The complaint further alleges Whiles captured volume-based commissions through an entity he controlled, Whitson Medical.
The matter arises from a qui tam action, United States et al. ex rel. Jesse Allen v. Capstone Diagnostics, LLC, No. 1:19-CV-5598-SEG, in which the United States has intervened. Capstone and its owner previously resolved related allegations for $14.3 million; the laboratory’s billing company, VitalAxis, Inc., paid $300,479. Johnson was separately indicted in the Northern District of Georgia on Dec. 10, 2025, on health care fraud conspiracy charges; that prosecution remains pending and he is presumed innocent. The Department states expressly that the civil claims “are allegations only” and that “[t]here has been no determination of liability.”
5. Maryland Pharmacy Settles for $5.3M Over Prescription Documentation
Remedi SeniorCare Holding Corporation, headquartered in Towson, Maryland, agreed to pay more than $5.3 million to resolve allegations that between Jan. 1, 2015, and March 31, 2021, it submitted claims to Medicare and Medicaid for drugs dispensed to assisted living residents without valid prescriptions, the Department announced Sept. 17.
Two details are worth flagging. First, the Department states the settlement amount is based on Remedi’s ability to pay and will be paid over time — a structure that typically signals a company with constrained finances. Second, the matter resolved out of the Southern District of Ohio, in United States ex rel. Gearhart & Griffieth v. Remedi SeniorCare Holding Corp., No. 1:20cv970, a whistleblower action brought by two former employees. The claims are allegations only, and the Department states there has been no determination of liability.
6. $32.2 Million in Foreign Proceeds Returned to The Gambia and Curaçao
Two asset-repatriation actions closed within 24 hours of each other. On Sept. 18, the Department returned $2,507,911.73 in net proceeds to The Gambia, derived from the forfeiture and sale of a Potomac, Maryland, mansion. The civil forfeiture complaint, filed as United States v. Real Property Located in Potomac, MD, Commonly Known as 9908 Bentcross Drive, No. 8:20-cv-2071 (D. Md.), alleged that former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh obtained funds through embezzlement of public money and bribes from businesses seeking monopoly rights, and that he and his wife, Zineb Jammeh, used those proceeds and misappropriated public funds to purchase the property. Neither has been convicted in a U.S. court in connection with this matter; the conduct is alleged. Under the return agreement, The Gambia will apply the funds to compensate eligible victims as defined under its Victims Reparations Act of 2023.
A day earlier, the Department transferred approximately $29.7 million to the government of Curaçao in three installments. That recovery followed the conviction and sentencing in Curaçao of Robertico A. Dos Santos over an eight-year unlicensed lottery and tax evasion scheme; proceeds had been deposited in investment accounts at a Miami bank in the names of companies he controlled. The U.S. role was enforcement, not prosecution: the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering, Narcotics, and Forfeiture Section obtained orders from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia enforcing first a Curaçaoan pre-trial restraining order and later that court’s final forfeiture order. The transfer terms bar any disbursement to Dos Santos, his family, or businesses he controls, and require periodic audits published on public websites in Curaçao.
7. Justice Manual Revised to Narrow False Claims Act Litigation
On Sept. 18 the Department announced two revisions to the Justice Manual with meaningful downstream consequences for FCA defendants and relators alike.
The first reinstates and expands the Department’s 2017 position that sub-regulatory agency guidance cannot create legal obligations beyond those established by statute or regulation — a change reflected in JM 1-19.000. The second, at JM 4-4.111, directs that the Department should consider exercising its dismissal authority when it declines to intervene in a qui tam action, and revisit that assessment as litigation proceeds.
Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward, Jr., framed the change as a rule-of-law measure: “The Department of Justice should enforce the law, not make law through enforcement.” For relators’ counsel, the practical effect is that a declination no longer means a free hand to litigate — the government retains an active posture on dismissal throughout the case.
8. NYU Langone and UPMC Reach Resolutions Totaling $9.45M
New York University Langone Hospitals agreed to pay $8.5 million and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center $950,000 under agreements announced Sept. 18 resolving allegations under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the False Claims Act, and other federal health care laws, including alleged use of false diagnosis codes to obtain payment. Both systems agreed to stop providing the interventions at issue to minors, and both received credit for cooperation.
The Department states in terms that “[t]he claims resolved by the United States in these agreements are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability,” and that “NYU and UPMC have expressly denied all allegations.” The releases identify similar prior agreements with Mount Sinai Health System, Texas Children’s Hospital, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, and Connecticut Children’s Hospital. Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate indicated the inquiry continues, stating that “our efforts and investigations into other providers are ongoing.”
Cases Warranting Deeper TIJ Investigation
The multi-district voting cases. Twenty-seven defendants across roughly two weeks, drawn from at least eleven districts, implies a centralized data-matching effort rather than eleven independent investigations. The public record does not yet identify the referral mechanism, the data sources used to flag registrations, or the false-positive rate of that screening. Those are answerable questions through FOIA and docket review, and they bear directly on how the results should be interpreted.
The Capstone Diagnostics matter. Capstone and its owner settled for $14.3 million; the billing company settled for $300,479; two executives now face a civil complaint and one faces a pending criminal indictment. The sequencing — corporate resolution first, individual exposure second — is a pattern worth tracking against the Department’s stated individual-accountability posture. The underlying qui tam has been on the Northern District of Georgia docket since 2019.
The Remedi ability-to-pay structure. A settlement scaled to a defendant’s finances and paid in installments raises a recurring accountability question: how often do such arrangements complete, and what happens to the government’s recovery when they do not? Neither the Department nor HHS-OIG publishes completion data on ability-to-pay FCA settlements.
The JM 4-4.111 revision. The instruction to consider dismissal in declined qui tam cases is the kind of procedural change that produces measurable effects within two to three quarters. Tracking government motions to dismiss filed under 31 U.S.C. § 3730(c)(2)(A) over the coming year would establish whether the manual change altered practice or merely restated it.
The Investigative Journal contacted no defendants or counsel for this digest; all parties named in pending matters retain the right of reply, and TIJ will publish substantive responses. Every factual statement above is drawn from Justice Department press releases and the case captions those releases identify. Allegations in complaints, indictments, and settled civil matters are not findings of liability or guilt.