The Investigative Journal’s daily review of federal enforcement actions. All information below is drawn from Justice Department press releases and court filings linked in each item. Charges are allegations; every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.
The Justice Department closed out the holiday-shortened week with a burst of enforcement activity spanning health care fraud, election integrity, housing antitrust, and tax fraud. The most consequential item: a Massachusetts grand jury indictment tied to what the department calls the largest health care fraud case it has ever prosecuted. Below, TIJ reviews the actions announced in the department’s September 3–4 releases — the most recent batch published before the Labor Day pause — including one case with a court date scheduled for today.
Grand Jury Charges Alleged Money Launderer in $1.3 Billion Medicare Fraud Tied to Russia-Based Network
A federal grand jury in the District of Massachusetts returned an indictment charging Erekle Gugava, 33, a Georgian national the department describes as being in the United States illegally, with one count of money laundering conspiracy, the Justice Department announced September 4. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
According to the charging documents described in the release, Gugava purportedly owned ND Medical Solutions LLC, a durable medical equipment company in Pennsylvania, for roughly five months between February and July 2025. In that window, prosecutors allege, ND Medical submitted at least $1.3 billion in fraudulent claims to Medicare, Medicare supplemental insurers, and private plans — which paid out approximately $6.5 million. Filings indicate Gugava opened ND Medical bank accounts as sole signatory, deposited insurer checks, and routed funds to overseas accounts for the benefit of a transnational criminal organization based in Russia and elsewhere — the network behind Operation Gold Rush, which the department has called the largest health care fraud matter ever prosecuted by DOJ.
The alleged scheme leaned on stolen identities of elderly and disabled Americans across New England and beyond; many victims reportedly flagged the fraud themselves after receiving explanation-of-benefits forms listing equipment they never received from doctors they never saw. The case is significant for what it says about the plumbing of transnational fraud: as Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the National Fraud Enforcement Division put it, “fraud networks cannot function without people willing to launder and transmit their proceeds.” The indictment is an allegation, and Gugava is presumed innocent.
Five Charged Across Three States with Illegal Voting in 2022 and 2024 Elections; One Defendant in Court Today
Five individuals in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Wisconsin were charged with illegally voting or fraudulently registering in the 2022 or 2024 federal elections, the department announced September 4. Per the release, the defendants include two people described as illegal aliens, two other non-citizens, and one U.S. citizen charged with aiding and abetting.
In the Middle District of Pennsylvania, a grand jury indicted Thomas Holtzman, 68, a U.S. citizen, and his wife Marisol Guzman, 50, of Carlisle, on charges related to Guzman allegedly voting as a non-citizen in 2024; Katya Rodriguez, 30, of Harrisburg, was separately indicted on registration and voting charges carrying a combined maximum of 11 years. In New Jersey, Mercedes Alexandra Cardoso of Union County — who filings indicate entered the country from Ecuador on a B-2 visitor visa — allegedly certified U.S. citizenship on an online registration form and cast a ballot in the June 2024 primary. She is scheduled for an initial appearance today, September 8. In the Western District of Wisconsin, Jesus Javier Jurado Garcia, 25, of Beloit, was charged with voting as a non-citizen in the November 2022 election.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said election fraud “is a serious crime, and it is the duty of the Department of Justice to treat it as such,” while FBI Director Kash Patel called election integrity a top bureau priority. The cases — individually small, with several counts capped at one year — matter chiefly as a signal: coordinated multi-district charging announcements suggest the department intends to keep non-citizen voting prosecutions visible heading into the 2026 midterms. These are accusations only, and all five defendants are presumed innocent.
Antitrust Division Adds Pinnacle to RealPage Rent-Algorithm Settlements
The Antitrust Division filed a proposed consent decree to resolve claims against Pinnacle Property Management Services LLC, a Frisco, Texas-based property manager the department calls one of America’s largest landlords, in its ongoing Middle District of North Carolina action over algorithmic rent coordination, DOJ announced September 4. The January 2025 complaint alleged Pinnacle and co-defendant landlords set rents using each other’s competitively sensitive data through RealPage’s pricing algorithms.
If approved, the decree would bar Pinnacle from using pricing algorithms built on competitors’ sensitive data, prohibit information sharing with rivals, require a court-appointed monitor if Pinnacle adopts an uncertified third-party algorithm, bar participation in RealPage-hosted meetings of competing landlords, and require cooperation in the government’s claims against remaining defendants. The settlement follows earlier resolutions with RealPage itself and landlords Cortland, Greystar, LivCor, and Willow Bridge — meaning the department has now largely standardized conduct terms across the major players in the case. Under the Tunney Act, the proposed judgment and a competitive impact statement will be published in the Federal Register for a 60-day public comment period before the court decides whether entry is in the public interest. The proposed final judgment and competitive impact statement are available on the department’s site.
Seven Charged in $57 Million Tax Refund Scheme Built on Fictitious Financial Instruments
A superseding indictment unsealed last week charges seven defendants — Andrea and Kent Shannon of Kuna, Idaho; Monika Skinger of Chicago; Sherita Chandler of Port St. Lucie, Florida; Saule Moshkanova of Roseville, California; Tiffany Nichols of Suwanee, Georgia; and Stacey Rice of Manteca, California — with conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a scheme that allegedly sought more than $57 million in fraudulent refunds, per the department’s September 3 release.
According to the indictment, from 2023 through 2024 the conspirators prepared false individual and trust tax returns and filed more than 100 fictitious financial instruments with the IRS, ultimately extracting more than $8 million in actual payouts. The Shannons, previously charged in an earlier indictment, face additional wire fraud, false claims, and money laundering counts — prosecutors allege they spent fraudulent refunds on luxury cars. The conspiracy count carries a 20-year maximum. The gap between the $57 million claimed and the $8 million paid raises an uncomfortable question for the IRS that the release does not address: how did nine figures’ worth of fictitious instruments get far enough to yield eight figures in refunds? The charges are allegations, and all seven are presumed innocent.
Florida DME Operators Sentenced for $34.8 Million Medicare Brace Scheme
Kenneth Charles Kessler III, 43, of Miami, and Michael Andrew Gomez, 43, of Miramar, were sentenced to 33 and 24 months in prison respectively for a $34.8 million health care fraud conspiracy, DOJ announced September 4. Both pleaded guilty in May 2026, so unlike the cases above, these findings rest on admitted conduct.
According to court documents, the pair operated seven Florida durable medical equipment companies, paid kickbacks for fraudulently signed doctors’ orders, and shipped orthotic braces nationwide to Medicare beneficiaries who neither requested nor needed them — shifting billing between companies to evade Medicare payment suspensions. Kessler profited more than $1.4 million and Gomez more than $2.3 million, per the release. The department notes its Health Care Fraud Strike Force has charged more than 6,200 defendants tied to over $45 billion in billings since 2007 — and the persistence of brace schemes a decade into that effort suggests the DME billing pipeline remains a soft target.
Also on the Docket
Four other actions from the same release window merit brief mention. An Ohio corporation pleaded guilty to negligent endangerment in connection with an explosion that killed one worker and injured several others, per DOJ. Luis Carlos Davalos-Lopez, 29, a Mexican national, pleaded guilty in El Paso to conspiring to smuggle migrants through an underground tunnel running from Ciudad Juarez into Texas, according to the department. Carlos Erick Vazquez Gonzalez, 48, also a Mexican national, pleaded guilty to laundering roughly $4 million in drug trafficking proceeds and repatriating them to Mexico via cryptocurrency, DOJ said. And the department announced an agreement with Mount Sinai Health System resolving an investigation into potential federal law violations, under which the New York system will stop providing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and related surgical procedures to minors and pay a monetary penalty, according to the department’s description of the agreement.
What TIJ Is Watching
Three threads from this batch warrant deeper investigation. First, the Gugava indictment renews the central unanswered question of Operation Gold Rush: how a shell DME company could bill $1.3 billion in five months before Medicare’s program-integrity screens caught up. Records suggest the fraud was surfaced in part by beneficiaries themselves — not by CMS contractors paid to detect it. TIJ intends to examine contractor performance data and the network of nominee-owned DME shells that filings indicate remain unprosecuted. Second, the Pinnacle decree effectively completes DOJ’s settlement architecture in the RealPage litigation; the 60-day Tunney Act comment window is the public’s last opportunity to shape those terms, and TIJ will review the competitive impact statement and docket for holdout defendants. Third, the election cases point to registration-system vulnerabilities — filings in the New Jersey case indicate a non-citizen self-certified citizenship through the state’s online portal without detection until years later — a process question that deserves scrutiny separate from any individual prosecution.
Right of reply: TIJ has not yet received responses from counsel for the defendants named above; counsel of record are invited to contact the editorial desk and responses will be added. All charged defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Sources
- DOJ: Georgian National Charged in $1.3B Health Care Fraud Laundering Conspiracy (Sept. 4, 2026)
- DOJ: Operation Gold Rush National Health Care Fraud Takedown
- DOJ: Five Charged with Illegal Voting, Fraudulent Registration (Sept. 4, 2026)
- DOJ: Proposed Consent Decree with Pinnacle Property Management (Sept. 4, 2026) — Proposed Final Judgment, Competitive Impact Statement
- DOJ: Seven Charged in $57M Tax Refund Fraud Scheme (Sept. 3, 2026)
- DOJ: Florida Men Sentenced in $34.8M Medicare Brace Scheme (Sept. 4, 2026)
- DOJ: Ohio Company Pleads Guilty in Worker Death Case (Sept. 4, 2026)
- DOJ: Guilty Plea in Underground Tunnel Smuggling Conspiracy (Sept. 4, 2026)
- DOJ: Guilty Plea in $4M Drug Proceeds Laundering (Sept. 4, 2026)
- DOJ: Agreement with Mount Sinai Health System (Sept. 4, 2026)