A Michigan adult day care owner pleaded guilty to billing Medicare for psychotherapy services that were never provided, including sessions supposedly performed after patients had died.
According to the Justice Department, Yolanda Matthews, 58, of Farmington Hills, submitted more than $539,000 in false Medicare claims.
Matthews admitted billing for services while beneficiaries were hospitalized and filing claims under the names of social workers who no longer worked at her adult day care center. She also billed Medicare for treating beneficiaries after their deaths.
Matthews pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud after being charged through the 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown. She faces up to 10 years in prison when sentenced on Nov. 18.
Both Matthews and her husband were previously found responsible for abusing patients in their care.
Federal prosecutors charged eight defendants in a check-fraud scheme involving current and former New York City correction officers, a Texas parole officer and an MTA employee.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, Bianca Vieux allegedly recruited participants through an encrypted messaging platform. Recruits provided bank-account information so falsified checks could be deposited and withdrawn as cash.
The defendants allegedly created or deposited more than $3 million in fake checks and obtained over $500,000. Prosecutors say the proceeds funded luxury handbags, plastic surgery and tropical vacations.
Christopher Walker, a current NYC correction officer, allegedly made one fraudulent deposit while wearing his Department of Correction uniform. Former correction officer Valeria Waldron later worked as a Texas parole officer, while Steven Boyce worked for the New York City Transit Authority.
Walker allegedly obtained fake checks and documents from other fraudsters. Boyce is accused of producing fraudulent Social Security cards for him.
Two former correction officers, Aaron Warren and Tara Dildy, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and await sentencing.
Dallas-based Magnolia Diagnostics, its owners and several investors will pay $24 million to resolve allegations involving medically unnecessary testing performed on seniors during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the Justice Department, Magnolia and owners John Bains and Kelly Bains agreed to pay $19.2 million to settle False Claims Act allegations. Investors will pay another $4.8 million over distributions they received from the laboratory.
Federal officials alleged Magnolia required senior living communities seeking COVID-19 testing to also obtain expensive respiratory pathogen panels. The laboratory allegedly used prepopulated forms and provider signatures as standing orders covering entire facilities without individual clinical assessments.
Magnolia allegedly continued performing the panels even after communities questioned their medical necessity or requested COVID-19-only testing. John Bains was also accused of threatening to withhold COVID-19 testing and altering signed requisition forms to broaden their apparent authorization.
The laboratory allegedly froze thousands of specimens for weeks or months before testing them, producing results too late to guide treatment or infection-control decisions.
The case provides a glimpse into how qui tam enforcement under the Trump administration has evolved, specifically in the Northern District of Texas.
This settlement also offers a roadmap for Find Corporate Waste projects: follow the money beyond the entity that submitted the claims to the owners, affiliates and investors who ultimately received the proceeds.
Public records showing where taxpayer funds flowed may expose recovery targets beyond those which can be indexed from public records, even when the recipients never billed the government directly.
Brooklyn adult day care owner Eric Zhu surrendered to federal prison to begin serving 57 months for operating a $3.2 million Medicaid fraud and kickback scheme.
According to the Department of Justice, Zhu, 29, owned Prime Life Adult Day Care LLC.
From approximately 2020 through 2025, Prime Life paid Medicaid recipients illegal cash kickbacks to enroll in its social adult day care program. The company then billed Medicaid approximately $3.2 million for services those recipients never received.
Prosecutors said Medicaid paid the fraudulent claims in full. Zhu used multiple business entities to launder the proceeds and generate cash for the kickbacks. Investigators recovered some of that cash during a search of Prime Life.
Zhu was ordered to pay nearly $3.2 million in restitution and forfeit another $1.5 million in fraud proceeds.
A former U.S. Census Bureau program manager was sentenced to two years in prison for steering a multimillion-dollar federal contract to a relative’s company in exchange for $790,000 in kickbacks.
Yolanda Jones of Maryland has agreed to settle allegations she misappropriated federal funds.
According to the Justice Department, Camille T. Jones, 47, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, directed an employee-assistance program contract and later modifications toward a prime contractor and YMJ Consulting, a subcontractor owned by her relative, Yolanda M. Jones.
Prosecutors said Camille Jones tried to disguise the kickbacks through a fabricated service agreement between YMJ Consulting and her mental-health company. The agreement was signed in 2024 but backdated to 2020 before being provided to investigators.
Jones also admitted sharing confidential Census Bureau procurement information with another government contractor. That contractor hired another relative for a minimal-work position paying $83,000, although Jones allegedly performed most of the work.
Jones pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery and honest-services fraud. She must also forfeit the scheme’s proceeds and serve one year of supervised release.
A Massachusetts man kept collecting federal benefits for six years after the intended recipient died.
James C. Burdulis, 57, of Lynn, MA received $63,959 in Social Security benefits and $3,200 in pandemic stimulus payments intended for a beneficiary who died in May 2019.
Burdulis had served as the beneficiary’s representative payee.
Instead, prosecutors said Burdulis filed five fraudulent reports between 2020 and 2024 claiming the money had been spent for the deceased beneficiary.
He also submitted a September 2020 verification form stating that the beneficiary remained alive at the same address.
Burdulis pleaded guilty in April to receiving stolen government money and making false statements. He was sentenced to one day in prison, deemed served, followed by three years of supervised release. He must repay $67,159.
The Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday that ICE Homeland Security Investigations arrested Denise Nataly Migliore, a lawful permanent resident from Australia.
Federal prosecutors allege Migliore falsely claimed U.S. citizenship to register to vote in 2022 and 2024, then cast ballots in both federal election cycles.
That raises a second question for Find Corporate Waste: what systems processed those registrations, and what were taxpayers told those systems could do?
Under the Help America Vote Act, states must maintain centralized statewide voter-registration databases. The U.S. Election Assistance Commission recognizes those systems as combinations of software, hardware and related technology used to manage voter records.
FCW is examining whether private contractors were paid to provide identity matching, data integration, eligibility controls or exception reporting, and whether those capabilities were accurately represented to government customers.
If a taxpayer-funded vendor knowingly overstated system capabilities or falsely certified required controls, the issue could extend into procurement fraud and potentially False Claims Act exposure.
The IRS announced that Mario Flores, a Honduran national, was sentenced to 96 months in prison for his role in an off-the-books payroll scheme tied to the construction industry based in Orlando, FL.
The sentencing record shows the scale. Flores received eight years in prison. Co-conspirator Iris Villafranca was previously sentenced to 17 years, ordered to pay more than $38 million in restitution, and ordered to forfeit $89 million in criminal proceeds.
According to the IRS Criminal Investigation, Flores and his co-conspirators used shell companies to cash approximately $89 million in checks from construction subcontractors between 2015 and 2022.
The scheme converted contractor checks into cash so workers could be paid off the books. That structure helped contractors avoid payroll taxes, falsify tax filings, and conceal the true size of their workforce.
This was not just illegal hiring. It was a fraud model. Through this scheme, The United States lost more than $38 million.
Off-the-books payroll gives dishonest contractors an artificial advantage over lawful employers. They avoid taxes, insurance costs, reporting duties, and worker-authorization rules while competitors are forced to comply.
The scheme also targeted workers’ compensation insurance. Prosecutors said the conspirators leased insurance certificates to contractors and submitted false information about the number of workers covered and the amount they were paid.
For Find Corporate Waste, the relevance is the fraud architecture. Shell companies, false filings, subcontractor pass-throughs, cash payroll, and insurance misrepresentations are not isolated paperwork issues. They are vital data signals.
Eligibility must be testable and traceable, such that disqualifying facts can be presented to trigger recovery through qui tam proceedings.
The underground economy drains public revenue, rewards unlawful contractors, and forces taxpayers to subsidize businesses that refuse to follow the rules.
Find Corporate Waste is here to track every lead and to provide assistance to federal partners in addressing the systematic fraud issue that has plagued our country for far too long.
This case is an example of how the Trump Administration’s Department of Justice is clawing back billions of taxpayer dollars from fraud schemes throughout the country.
The United States has reached a $939,290 civil settlement with SSM Health Care over allegations that the retail pharmacy at Saint Louis University Hospital routinely waived patient copays, causing Medicare and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program to overpay for prescriptions.
DOJ says the conduct ran from September 2020 through February 2023, with pharmacy employees allegedly waiving or failing to collect copays. That is not a harmless discount. Routine copay waivers can steer patients to one pharmacy, hide the real prescription cost, and inflate what federal programs pay.
The case began with a qui tam whistleblower suit filed under the False Claims Act. The whistleblower will receive $159,210, while SSM will also pay $150,000 in fees and costs. SSM did not admit liability and DOJ credited the company’s cooperation and remedial action.
For FCW, the takeaway is direct: when providers manipulate the economics behind federally reimbursed claims, the taxpayer is left holding the bill. Copays are not paperwork. They are part of the program-integrity firewall.
The latest pandemic-relief fraud case out of North Carolina is a story about tax preparers who abused their gatekeeping role, converted federal relief into a refund machine, and helped drain money from programs Congress created for people and businesses in legitimate distress.
According to the Department of Justice, the preparers used false tax returns to claim fraudulent COVID-era paid sick and family leave credits. The conspiracy allegedly ran from approximately April 2022 through May 2023 and involved refund claims tied to relief provisions meant for legitimate businesses.
DOJ says Nejlai Mitchell, owner of a tax preparation business operating in Lumberton and Hope Mills, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and assisting in the preparation of false returns. Seven other preparers also pleaded guilty for their roles in the scheme.
For FCW, this case reinforces why pandemic-relief enforcement cannot stop at PPP or Provider Relief Fund reviews. Relief fraud moved through tax credits, refund claims, payroll representations, and professional intermediaries.
Operation Clawback is built around that same premise: COVID-era funds must be screened against eligibility rules, exclusion indicators, and public-record red flags.
