The Justice Department has stood up a West Coast Health Care Fraud Strike Force that pairs the Fraud Division’s Health Care Fraud Section with U.S. Attorneys in Arizona, Nevada, and the Northern District of California to hunt down complex schemes targeting Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers.

The new West Coast Healthcare Fraud Strike Force combines federal resources across three districts to intensify investigations and prosecutions of health care fraud. It brings focused personnel and data-driven tools to regions where fraud models and technology-enabled schemes have been growing.

Nationally, the Healthcare Strike Force model already has a track record of results, having prosecuted over 6,200 defendants who collectively billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $45 billion. That record is a core reason federal leaders expanded the model to the West Coast, where high-tech platforms can amplify criminal activity.

The expansion puts extra enforcement muscle into the Northern District of California’s tech ecosystem and responds to data showing fraud scheme migration toward Arizona and Nevada. Late last year in San Francisco, the CEO and Chief Medical Officer of a digital technology company were convicted for an over $100 million scheme to commit healthcare fraud and distribute over Adderall over the internet, resulting in addiction and patient harm.

“Driven by data showing a significant and accelerating increase in health care fraud across all three districts, the Strike Force builds on a foundation of recent landmark prosecutions — including the successful prosecution of digital health technology executives in the Northern District of California and the dismantling of Medicaid, sober home, and wound care fraud schemes in the District of Arizona,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald of the Justice Department’s Fraud Division. “The Fraud Division is committed to bringing that same relentless, data-driven prosecutorial force to bear across every corner of this region, making unmistakably clear that no scheme is too sophisticated, no network too large or small, and no fraudster too distant to escape federal accountability.”

“Silicon Valley has become ground zero for technology-driven health care fraud schemes that seek to cheat taxpayer-funded programs like Medicare,” said Craig H. Missakian, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California. “The Health Care Strike Force announced today is a powerful partnership that brings together the resources and expertise needed to detect and dismantle even the most sophisticated fraud schemes.”

These convictions followed other recent high-impact prosecutions that were jointly prosecuted by the Strike Force and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices prosecutors, and several cases illustrate the variety and scale of the threats. Notable examples include major frauds that targeted Medicare, Medicaid, and investors through sham operations and abusive billing.

• United States v. Gehrke and King (DAZ): Two wound graft company owners pled guilty and were sentenced to 15.5 and 14 years in prison for a $1.2 billion wound graft fraud scheme targeting Medicare and Medicaid. The Government seized $126 million in assets, including cash, luxury vehicles, and gold bars, related to this case.
• United States v. Ali (DAZ): The owner of a Pakistan-based medical billing company was indicted in June 2025 for an alleged scheme involving the exploitation of substance abuse patients at over 41 substance abuse treatment clinics that fraudulently billed Arizona Medicaid over $650 million. The defendant is a Pakistani national and fugitive from justice.
• United States v. Schena (NDCA): The president of a Silicon Valley-based medical technology company was convicted at trial and sentenced to eight years in prison in the first criminal securities fraud case related to COVID-19 charged by the Justice Department, the first criminal COVID-19 healthcare fraud case brought to trial, and a significant prosecution delineating the scope of the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act. United States v. Schena,No. 23-2989 (9th Cir. 2025).

“Defrauding the government steals from Americans who need help the most. In Arizona alone, federal law enforcement and the United States Attorney’s Office have disrupted fraud schemes worth over a billion dollars of taxpayer money,” said Timothy Courchaine, U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona. “Our mission as part of the West Coast Health Care Fraud Strike Force is to ensure Americans who need critical services are not used as pawns to make bad actors rich. Through excellent investigations, trial work, and seizures of ill-gotten gains, the District of Arizona will continue safeguarding those services.”

HealthCare Fraud Acting Chief Jacob Foster and Acting Assistant Chief Gary Winters will coordinate closely with the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices to establish the Strike Force. The effort will operate alongside the HHS Office of Inspector General, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and other partners to prioritize fast, coordinated action where the data points to rising threats.

“The dedicated Assistant U.S. Attorneys and professional staff in the District of Nevada are working in coordination with our partners at the FBI, HHS, DEA and other federal, state, and local agencies to unravel fraud schemes and to hold criminals fully accountable,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Sigal Chattah for the District of Nevada. “With each indictment and conviction, we are achieving justice for victims who were taken advantage of by these fraudsters. We are proud to be part of the newly created West Coast Health Care Fraud Strike Force and we are committed to bringing our skill and expertise to the Justice Department’s fight against fraud.”

“DEA’s involvement in the West Coast Fraud Task Force demonstrates our continued commitment to work across government to safeguard the health and safety of our communities. Our message to health care professionals who profit their patients’ pain is clear: if you use your license to harm the public, you will be held accountable,” said Assistant Administrator Cheri Oz, DEA Diversion Control Division. “Whether you are a medical professional who diverts controlled substances, like Adderall or Xanax, or a criminal enterprise that defrauds federal health care programs and private insurers, DEA will continue its pursuit of those who exploit our health care system and poison our communities.”

Healthcare fraud in these districts imposes a heavy and growing cost on taxpayers and corrodes trust in Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE. The victims are real: elderly patients denied care, disabled people whose benefits are stolen, and low-income families who depend on these programs. The Strike Force expansion signals a stronger federal posture to identify, investigate, and prosecute these offenses, and the Department has indicated policies that incentivize corporate disclosure in appropriate cases.

The announcement follows the Strike Force program’s earlier expansion to the District of Massachusetts and a record-setting enforcement year in 2025 that included the largest ever National Healthcare Fraud Takedown. That takedown charged more than $15 billion in alleged loss, forfeited and returned more than $560 million to the public fisc, and brought four corporate matters. A third-party analysis also showed an average return on investment (FY21-24) from funding the Health Care Fraud Section by year 10 of $106.76 per $1 spent, with over $4.5 billion in projected savings.

“The FBI is proud of the work we do to combat health care fraud, and we are eager to continue investigating those who illegally abuse our systems,” said Assistant Director Heith Janke of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. “This Strike Force allows for further joint actions that will prevent more criminals from lining their pockets at the expense of the American taxpayer. We look forward to playing our part in this whole-of-government approach to combating these schemes.”

On April 7, the Department of Justice announced the creation of the Fraud Division, a focused unit for pursuing fraud against the American people. That work aligns with President Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance, which aims to cut waste and protect federal benefit programs.

“Strike Force partnerships between HHS-OIG, DOJ, U.S. Attorney’s Offices, the FBI, and the DEA are a proven force multiplier that utilizes a coordinated and data-driven approach to identifying, investigating, and prosecuting fraud,” said Acting Deputy Inspector General for Investigations Scott J. Lampert of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS‑OIG). “Recent enforcement actions across Arizona, Nevada, and California have revealed emerging threats targeting billions of taxpayer dollars from federal health care programs. Many of these schemes are driven by sham operations designed to appear legitimate while exploiting patients and inflating claims through increasingly sophisticated methods. The expansion of the West Coast Health Care Fraud Strike Force ensures that HHS‑OIG can apply our investigative tools and coordinated enforcement capabilities to identify these threats earlier and act with strategic precision.”