Takeaways From DOJ Fraud Section’s 2025 Year in Review

The Fraud Section prosecutes white collar crime through four litigating units: the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) Unit, Health Care Fraud Unit (HCF), Health and Safety Unit (HSU), and Market, Government, and Consumer Fraud Unit (MGC). It also includes the Corporate Enforcement and Compliance (CEC) Unit, which supports the Fraud Section’s corporate criminal enforcement practice. 

The Report demonstrates that, despite predictions by some that white collar enforcement might see a dramatic decline under the current Administration, the Fraud Section’s activity remained generally in line with 2024, and certain metrics even reached new historical highs, including three corporate indictments without a negotiated guilty plea, versus no corporate indictments in 2024, and 31 more individuals charged than in 2024. Given the Fraud Section’s “record-setting accomplishments,” its expansion through the integration of the Consumer Protection Branch, and an emphasis on increased use of data analytics tools to proactively identify new fraud schemes, corporate compliance, risk mitigation, and remediation remain as important as ever. 

Key Enforcement Statistics

Individual Prosecutions: According to the Report, the Fraud Section charged 265 individuals in 2025 and secured 235 individual convictions through guilty pleas and trials (though these figures include charges and convictions unsealed in 2025 but entered under seal in prior years). The Report highlights a more than 10% increase in the number of individuals charged versus 2024. However, the 2024 report reveals the number of individuals convicted through guilty pleas and trials dropped slightly more than 7%, and trial convictions alone, without guilty pleas, had more than a 22% decline from 40 individuals in 2024 to 31 in 2025. 

The Report highlights the alleged aggregate intended loss across all individuals charged reached an all-time record of more than $16 billion, which it notes is more than double 2024’s total. Of that total alleged loss amount, the Report reflects $15.02 billion attributable to individual health care fraud charges, which also made up most of the charges (194 of 265) and convictions (150 of 235). 

Corporate Enforcement: According to the Report, “2025 marked a banner year in corporate enforcement for the Fraud Section.” The Fraud Section brought 15 corporate enforcement actions, including three indictments (one FCPA, two HCF), two guilty pleas (two HSU), four deferred prosecution agreements (two MGC, one HCF/HSU, one FCPA), three non-prosecution agreements (one HCF, one HSU, one MGC), and three “declinations” under the DOJ’s Corporate Enforcement Policy (one FCPA, two MGC). Together, these 15 actions resulted in a combined resolution amount of nearly $1 billion, per the Report. 

The total number of corporate enforcement actions increased slightly year over year, from 13 in 2024 to 15 in 2025. Notably, 2024 had no indictments, compared to the three in 2025. 

In addition to these actions, according to the Report, the Fraud Section currently oversees the compliance programs of 39 companies pursuant to active corporate resolutions, 33 that require ongoing corporate self-reporting and six that imposed independent monitorships. These monitorships and self‑reporting obligations underscore the DOJ’s willingness to impose onerous oversight where compliance programs are found deficient. Proactive enhancements and documented program testing can help mitigate that risk.

Health Care Fraud Unit 

As reported, the HCF Unit was one of the DOJ’s most active litigating components in 2025, with a “record-setting” year including charges against 194 individuals, 17 trials, and 150 individuals convicted at trial or by guilty plea. The Report also highlights the HCF Unit’s leadership of the National Health Care Fraud Takedown, a coordinated nationwide enforcement action in which the HCF Unit, US Attorneys’ Offices, and State Attorneys General charged 324 individuals, including 96 licensed medical professionals.

On the corporate front, the HCF Unit reportedly brought four actions: it entered a non-prosecution agreement with a Medicare Advantage company that enrolled beneficiaries into Medicare plans without their consent, entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with a consumer goods and personal care company related to the sale of adulterated surgical gowns, and indicted two companies for distributing controlled substances. 

The Report emphasizes that the HCF Unit’s 2025 activities reflect several key enforcement priorities: 

• Using seizure and forfeiture to recover taxpayer dollars unlawfully obtained on false and fraudulent claims. 

• Combating emerging schemes, such as those involving wound care. 

• Telemedicine and digital health technology schemes. 

• Schemes orchestrated by foreign actors seeking to exploit US health care programs. 

• Substance abuse treatment fraud. 

• Prescription drug abuse fraud. 

• Corporate enforcement. 

• Traditional health care fraud schemes. 

The Report also summarizes two forward-looking initiatives by the HCF Unit: the expansion of the New England Strike Force into the District of Massachusetts “to enhance regional enforcement,” and a newly created Health Care Fraud Data Fusion Center “to improve data sharing, leverage advanced analytics, and detect emerging fraud schemes.”

Financially, the Report states that the HCF Unit returned more than $560 million to the public fisc and cites a third-party consulting group’s analysis of “ongoing” cases at the time of indictment, which found “that the average return on investment (FY21-24) by year 10 is $106.76 per $1 spent, and over $4.5 billion in projected savings.”

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Unit 

After a presidentially mandated pause of all FCPA enforcement starting in February 2025, during which the DOJ was directed to issue guidelines for future FCPA enforcement aligned with President Trump’s directive and “America First” policy emphasizing the vindication of US interests, in June 2025, the DOJ published revamped guidelines for FCPA enforcement. The guidelines prioritized the investigation and prosecution of foreign bribery schemes that (1) facilitate cartels and transnational criminal organizations, (2) undermine US opportunities to fairly compete, (3) impact US national security, or (4) involve serious misconduct with clear corrupt intent, such as substantial bribe payments and sophisticated efforts to conceal. Under that new guidance, in 2025, the FCPA Unit reportedly charged five individuals and obtained six convictions, as well as commenced three corporate enforcement actions, including the Fraud Section’s first corporate indictment in 15 years, one declination, and one deferred prosecution agreement. 

While this represents a significant decline in FCPA enforcement activity from prior years, it is a far cry from the complete retreat some had predicted. The Fraud Section intends for the “throughline” from its 2025 enforcement record to be “clear”: “[t]he Criminal Division is prosecuting FCPA violations, consistent with the Deputy Attorney General’s Guidelines, in a way that vindicates U.S. interests by ensuring that criminal actors in this space are held to account. We are enforcing this law firmly, fairly, and efficiently—regardless of the identity of the offender, in a way that promotes the rule of law and ensures an equal playing field so that companies win business based on merits.” Companies with significant overseas operations should recalibrate anti‑bribery risk assessments to the revised priorities, tighten controls over high‑risk intermediaries and state‑linked counterparties, and integrate export controls and national security considerations into third‑party diligence and transactional approvals.

Health and Safety Unit 

Formed at the end of November 2025 following the reassignment of matters and prosecutors from the Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch to the Fraud Section, the HSU assumed responsibility for the enforcement of a wide range of criminal offenses under the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the Consumer Product Safety Act, and related criminal statutes concerning hazardous products. While the reporting structure has changed, the mission of its prosecutors appears largely unaffected. 

As reflected in the Report, in 2025, the HSU charged four individuals and secured four individual convictions. Per the Report, the alleged conduct involved in the individual prosecutions involved, for example, falsifying clinical data in asthma drug trials, failing to report information related to defective dehumidifiers linked to residential fires, and managing trucking companies in violation of court and regulatory orders. 

The Report reflects the HSU brought four corporate enforcement actions in 2025, including cases investigated by HSU attorneys before the unit was reorganized into the Fraud Section. Two of the corporate actions were resolved via guilty pleas, one in connection with portable air conditioners allegedly linked to more than 40 fires and one death, and the other for health care fraud and tax conspiracy related to the diversion of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services funds intended for the benefit of residents of skilled nursing facilities. HSU entered into one non-prosecution agreement with a company regarding the introduction of unapproved medical devices into interstate commerce and also joined the HCF Unit in reaching the deferred prosecution agreement referenced above with a company regarding the sale of adulterated surgical gowns.

Market, Government, and Consumer Fraud Unit 

The MGC Unit was rebranded from the Market Integrity and Major Frauds Unit following the integration into the Fraud Section of the consumer fraud portfolio and prosecutors from the Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch. As the name suggests, the newly rebranded unit has an increased portfolio that includes not only market manipulation matters, but also fraud against government benefits programs, government procurement fraud, trade fraud and schemes to evade tariffs, and complex consumer and investment fraud. 

With a reported 62 individuals charged and 75 individuals convicted (10 at trial and 65 through guilty pleas), the number of individuals charged in 2025 decreased from 75 reported in 2024, while the number of convictions secured (including through guilty pleas) increased slightly from 71 reported in 2024. According to the Report, the MGC Unit had five corporate resolutions in 2025 (three deferred prosecution agreements and two declinations), up slightly from 2024, when it had four (one guilty plea, two deferred prosecution agreements, and one declination).

The 2025 matters referenced in the Report include a broad array of alleged frauds, such as pandemic‑era benefits fraud involving Paycheck Protection Program and unemployment insurance, schemes targeting veteran education benefits, fraud schemes involving foreign issuers listed on US exchanges, and mass‑mailing, telemarketing, and inheritance scams targeting elderly and vulnerable citizens. Several of the cases cited involve alleged trade and customs fraud, which the Report highlights as a priority enforcement area for the MGC Unit. 

New DOJ Division for National Fraud Enforcement

The Fraud Section’s Report was issued on the heels of the White House’s January 8, 2026, announcement that the DOJ will be creating a new Division for National Fraud Enforcement, reflecting an Administration‑level priority to strengthen federal criminal and civil efforts to combat fraud against government programs, federally funded benefits, businesses, nonprofits, and private citizens. The reporting lines for this division, including the extent to which the White House may have any direct oversight over this division, and the extent to which this division may have any supervisory authority over the work of other DOJ Divisions or US Attorneys’ Offices, remain unclear. Its creation signals a possible shift in how all suspected fraud — criminal and civil, public and private — may be investigated and prosecuted going forward. The Report includes no reference to the announcement.

The Future of the Fraud Section

The Report suggests the Fraud Section’s enforcement posture will remain active, data‑driven, and increasingly coordinated across each of its litigating units. Expect to see continued Fraud Section efforts to investigate and prosecute traditional health care fraud, as well as heightened enforcement in the priority areas of alleged customs and tariff fraud, fraud associated with foreign issuers listed on US exchanges, white collar fraud impacting health and safety, and schemes that harm national security. As always, strong corporate compliance programs, effective risk mitigation measures, and timely remediation of misconduct can help avoid violations, and timely self-disclosure and cooperation can materially shape outcomes under DOJ policies in the event violations occur.

The ArentFox Schiff team can help companies refresh risk assessments to reflect the Fraud Section’s priorities; expand data analytics to detect anomalies; enhance third‑party due diligence and contract controls; test and monitor key financial, sanctions, and health care billing controls; and document board and management oversight to position for maximum credit under DOJ policies. Please contact the authors for assistance assessing your compliance program or responding to governmental or regulatory inquiries.