Federal Criminal Fraud Enforcement at an Inflection Point: What the Future Will Bring and What 2025 Revealed

The Enforcement Landscape Is Shifting — Here Is Where It Is Headed

In 2026, the DOJ Criminal Division's Fraud Section stands larger, broader and more aggressive than in previous years. After absorbing the former Consumer Protection Branch's criminal portfolio, the Section now employs more than 200 attorneys and operates four distinct prosecuting units — each with an active corporate enforcement docket. The Administration's announcement in January 2026 of a new National Fraud Enforcement Division signals an intent to expand the government's fraud enforcement footprint even further and could reshape how multi-agency investigations are coordinated and who controls them. The structural changes are significant, but so are the substantive shifts: enforcement priorities have been redrawn, new task forces are active, and whistleblower incentives have been extended to cover trade and customs fraud. For companies in health care, life sciences, international business, and any sector receiving federal funds, the enforcement landscape ahead looks fundamentally different and more demanding than the one that existed a year ago.

Health Care Enforcement Will Push Further Into Corporate Territory

The Health Care Fraud Unit brought more corporate health care fraud actions in 2025 than in any year since 2016, and an early 2026 action against Atlantic Biologicals¹ signals continued momentum. Health care companies, particularly those focused on pharmaceutical distribution and digital health, should expect increased exposure from analytics-driven referrals, whistleblower incentives, and coordinated takedowns.

Trade Fraud Is Now a Priority

The Market, Government, and Consumer Fraud Unit is now embedded in the cross-agency Trade Fraud Task Force, which coordinates criminal and civil enforcement against parties who seek to evade tariffs and other duties or smuggle prohibited goods into the American economy. That institutional role, combined with the Section's own data analytics capabilities, positions the MGC Unit to accelerate trade fraud prosecutions. In December 2025, the Task Force resolved its first coordinated corporate and individual trade fraud matter, involving MGI International, LLC. The Task Force declined to prosecute MGI, while the company's former COO pleaded guilty to conspiracy to smuggle goods by falsifying country-of-origin records to evade Section 301 tariff obligations on Chinese-origin products. The government has signaled it will replicate this blueprint of pairing Corporate Enforcement Policy resolutions with criminal prosecution of responsible executives. 

Additionally, the May 2025 expansion of DOJ's Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program to cover trade, customs and tariff violations is expected to generate additional leads and further increase enforcement activity in this space.²

FCPA Activity Will Recover and Concentrate

Following a February 2025 Executive Order that temporarily paused Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement, the Deputy Attorney General issued guidelines in June 2025 directing prosecutors to concentrate on the most serious misconduct — bribery linked to cartels or transnational criminal organizations, conduct that disadvantages U.S. companies or threatens national security, and cases bearing strong indicia of corrupt intent.³ With those guidelines now firmly in place, the FCPA Unit's caseload should expand within that defined perimeter. Cases involving cartels, national security harm, substantial bribes, or unfair competitive harm to U.S. companies will likely remain the targets. Companies operating in high-corruption jurisdictions across Latin America, Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in sectors tied to state-owned enterprises or government contracts, should expect a more active docket and proactively reassess their anti-bribery controls.

The Health and Safety Unit Will Define Its Own Enforcement Profile

On November 30, 2025, the Fraud Section launched a new Health and Safety Unit (HSU), staffed by 23 prosecutors drawn from the former Consumer Protection Branch, with a mandate to pursue criminal cases involving contaminated or counterfeit pharmaceuticals, dangerous consumer product defects, food safety violations, and transportation hazards. The unit will begin establishing its enforcement identity this year, though its four pre-launch corporate resolutions, which targeted diverted Medicare and Medicaid funds, unreported consumer product defects, uncleared medical devices, and adulterated surgical gowns, signal a focus on FDA-regulated products and consumer safety violations. Companies regulated under the FDCA, the Consumer Product Safety Act, and similar statutes should monitor the unit's first post-launch cases closely. The charging theories, resolution structures, and remedial requirements reflected in those matters will reveal whether the HSU adopts or departs from prior Consumer Protection Branch practice and will shape the enforcement landscape for years to come.

A New Division Signals Broader Enforcement Ambition

On January 8, 2026, the Trump Administration announced a new DOJ National Fraud Enforcement Division.⁴ It will be led by a Senate-confirmed Assistant Attorney General with authority to oversee multi-agency fraud investigations, direct U.S. Attorneys' Offices, and set national enforcement priorities. Although initially focused on state-level benefit fraud, its mandate extends to all fraud targeting federal programs, businesses, nonprofits and private citizens. That mandate substantially overlaps with the Fraud Section's existing jurisdiction, and it does not appear that any corresponding authority has been removed from the Fraud Section, raising the prospect of jurisdictional turf wars over case control and enforcement priorities. Any organization receiving federal funds — whether in health care, housing, education or other sectors — should monitor how jurisdictional lines develop in practice.

How 2025 Enforcement Informs These Predictions

These predictions are not merely speculative — they are grounded in a 2025 enforcement record that was historic by any measure. According to the Fraud Section's 2025 Year in Review,⁵ the Section charged 265 individuals (over a 10% increase from 2024), and secured 235 convictions at 25 trials across 17 districts. Combined global resolutions exceeded $1 billion, and aggregate intended fraud loss surpassed $16 billion — the highest figure the Section has ever reported, more than double the prior record of $6 billion set in 2024.

The Section also brought 15 corporate enforcement actions, exceeding its 2024 total and breaking from the pattern of the previous two administrations, in which corporate actions declined during the first year. Three of those actions were corporate indictments, the first the Section had obtained in over 15 years. Every litigating unit brought multiple corporate matters in a single year, a first in the Section's history. Corporate enforcement actions spanned health care, foreign bribery, trade fraud, and market manipulation.

Structural Change: A Larger, Broader Mission

In early 2025, President Trump directed federal agencies to consolidate programs and eliminate positions. While many DOJ sections were reduced or eliminated, the Fraud Section grew — absorbing the former Consumer Protection Branch's criminal portfolio and expanding to more than 200 attorneys, its largest headcount ever. As part of that integration, the Market Integrity and Major Frauds Unit was rebranded as the Market, Government, and Consumer Fraud Unit, and now covers a broader set of cases, including consumer fraud. Additionally, on November 30, 2025, the Section launched its Health and Safety Unit (HSU), staffed by 23 prosecutors drawn from the former Consumer Protection Branch, to pursue criminal cases involving contaminated or counterfeit pharmaceuticals, dangerous consumer product defects, food safety violations, and transportation hazards.

As a result of these changes, the Fraud Section now comprises four prosecuting units: Health Care Fraud (HCF), Market, Government, and Consumer Fraud (MGC), Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), and the Health and Safety Unit (HSU).

Health Care Fraud: A Record Year

The HCF Unit had a record-breaking year, charging over $15 billion in alleged losses, forfeiting and returning more than $560 million to the public, and bringing four corporate matters. Its signature initiative was the National Health Care Fraud Takedown — a coordinated, multi-district enforcement action that charged 324 defendants in schemes involving more than $14.6 billion in intended loss, the largest in DOJ history.

A standout action within the Takedown was Operation Gold Rush, which charged 21 defendants across five districts for participating in a Russia-based transnational criminal enterprise that filed over $12 billion in fraudulent claims to U.S. health insurance programs, including $10.6 billion to Medicare. It was the largest intended loss ever charged in a DOJ health care fraud case.

The Section also announced plans for a Health Care Fraud Data Fusion Center to pool data specialists from multiple agencies and apply AI and advanced analytics to detect emerging fraud patterns. In addition, HCF expanded its New England Strike Force into the District of Massachusetts.

MGC's 2025 Priorities: Markets, Trade and Consumer Protection

With its expanded mandate in hand, the MGC Unit pursued two enforcement themes likely to define its work going forward. First, it targeted market manipulation involving foreign-listed issuers on U.S. exchanges, focusing on schemes using variable interest entities (VIEs) to engineer artificial price inflation at the expense of American investors. Second, it prioritized trade and customs fraud, as exhibited by the MGI resolution.

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement: Paused, Reviewed and Restarted

Following the Deputy Attorney General's June 2025 guidelines, three corporate enforcement actions took place, highlighted by the indictment of SGO Corporation (Smartmatic) for alleged bribery tied to the 2016 Philippine elections — the Section's first corporate FCPA indictment in 15 years.

Concluding Advice: Proactive Compliance Is the Best Defense

The Section's expanding use of data analytics and whistleblower incentives means that the government's ability to detect fraud independently is growing. Companies that rely on problems staying hidden are taking a bet that is increasingly unlikely to pay off. Those that invest in robust internal investigation capabilities to find and fix issues on their own terms will be better placed legally, financially and reputationally, regardless of what any enforcement action brings.