DOJ Announces the Launch of the National Fraud Detection Center

DOJ Announces the Launch of the National Fraud Detection Center

On August 24, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the launch of the National Fraud Detection Center (NFDC), a prosecutor-led, multi-agency team designed to investigate the most harmful actors defrauding federal government programs, including actors overseas and those operating fraud schemes across federal programs. The NFDC will bring together law enforcement agencies and analytical capabilities to generate criminal leads to drive more impactful prosecutions and enhance fraud-fighting results.

The DOJ said that the NFDC is designed to address a lack of cross-program visibility that has long hindered efforts to deter fraud on taxpayer-funded programs. According to the DOJ, this gap has enabled some fraud actors to perpetrate schemes across multiple taxpayer-funded programs without detection. The NFDC closes this gap, according to the DOJ, by bringing partners across federal and state government together in a whole-of-government approach to eliminate fraud.

The NFDC inaugural governmental partners include the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, FinCEN, the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, the Treasury Department, and the Offices of Inspector General for the US Departments of Agriculture, Education, Health and Human Services (HHS), Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Veterans Affairs, the Department of War Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, Small Business Administration, and Social Security Administration. The NFDC announced that it will also be collaborating with officials from the following states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, and South Carolina.

Read the DOJ’s press release here.

Deloitte Agrees to Pay $21.5 Million to Resolve Alleged Employment Discrimination Violations Under the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative

On August 25, the DOJ announced that Deloitte LLP and several affiliated entities agreed to pay $21.5 million to resolve allegations that Deloitte violated the False Claims Act (FCA) by failing to comply with anti-discrimination requirements in its federal contracts and discriminating against employees and applicants on the basis of race or sex. The settlement represents another FCA resolution secured under the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative, which was launched by the Department in May 2025.

According to the government, from 2017 to the present, Deloitte falsely certified compliance with equal opportunity conditions required in federal contracts while engaging in discriminatory employment practices. Specifically, the United States alleged that Deloitte took race or sex into account in hiring, promotion, and staffing decisions to achieve progress toward non-public workforce composition goals, with business units receiving monthly summaries tracking demographic targets highlighted in green, yellow, or red. The government further alleged that Deloitte’s senior partners, principals, and managing directors were evaluated based on contributions to workforce composition goals, and approximately 150 of the most senior leaders had compensation that could be impacted if their units did not meet demographic goals. Deloitte also allegedly offered certain training and leadership development programs with eligibility limited on the basis of race or sex. 

The settlement resolves claims brought under the FCA’s qui tam provisions by the American Alliance for Equal Rights, which will receive $4.3 million. 

The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability. 

The case caption is United States ex rel. American Alliance for Equal Rights v. Deloitte LLP, No. 4:25-cv-00458 (N.D. Tex.). 

Read the DOJ’s press release here.

The Villages Health System Agrees to $541.5 Million Settlement to Resolve Medicare Advantage False Diagnosis Code Allegations

On August 26, the DOJ announced that The Villages Health System LLC (TVH), a health care provider group headquartered in The Villages, Florida, agreed to pay $541.5 million to resolve self-disclosed allegations that it violated the FCA by causing the submission of false diagnosis codes to inflate payments received from the Medicare Advantage (MA) program. According to the government, from 2020 through 2024, TVH knowingly submitted diagnosis codes to Medicare Advantage Organizations (MAOs) that were invalid because they did not have adequate support in the patient’s medical record or were based on amendments not initiated or timely approved by the rendering provider. TVH’s submission of unsupported codes allegedly caused the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to make inflated risk-adjusted payments to the MAOs, which in turn inflated the MAOs’ payments to TVH. 

The government acknowledged that TVH took significant steps warranting cooperation credit: TVH self-disclosed the invalid diagnoses to the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) pursuant to the OIG’s Health Care Fraud Self-Disclosure Protocol on December 27, 2024, promptly took remedial actions, and cooperated with the government throughout its investigation. TVH filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in July 2025, and the bankruptcy court approved the settlement on August 25. The invalid codes were submitted to three MAOs: Humana Inc., UnitedHealthcare, and GuideWell Mutual Holding Corporation, each of which is returning overpayments to CMS. 

The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability. 

Read the DOJ’s press release here.

DermTech Inc. to Pay Up to $5 Million to Resolve Allegations It Submitted False Claims to Medicare for Unreliable Skin Cancer Tests

On August 26, the DOJ announced that DermTech Inc., a skin cancer testing company now liquidating as DTech Liquidating Inc. after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2024, agreed to settle allegations that it violated the FCA by knowingly submitting false claims for unreliable skin cancer tests to Medicare. As part of the resolution, the United States received an Allowed Class Three General Unsecured Claim of $5,038,011 in DermTech’s bankruptcy proceeding. 

According to the government, from October 2022 to March 2023, DermTech billed Medicare for skin cancer tests conducted after switching to an unvalidated positive control range for one of the test’s two key melanoma markers — making it impossible to verify whether the test results were accurate. Additionally, from January 2020 to February 2022, DermTech allegedly billed Medicare for tests that did not contain enough patient RNA to be tested but still generated positive or negative results reported to patients. When concerns were raised about these tests, DermTech neither retracted the results nor adequately refunded Medicare.

The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability. 

The case caption is United States ex rel. Luong v. DermTech, Inc., No. 3:23-cv-01404 (S.D. Cal.).

Read the DOJ’s press release here.

Tetra Tech EC Inc. Agrees to Pay $57 Million to Settle FCA Allegations for Falsifying Soil Test Results at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard

On August 24, the DOJ announced that Tetra Tech EC Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Tetra Tech, Inc., paid $57 million to resolve FCA allegations that it fabricated work and falsified data the US Department of the Navy relied on to determine whether the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard (HPNS) in San Francisco, California, was free from harmful radiation. 

According to the government, under Navy contracts issued between 2003 and 2014, Tetra Tech was required to investigate soil and buildings at HPNS and remediate areas where radiation was excessive so the property could be transferred to the City of San Francisco for redevelopment. The government alleged that Tetra Tech instructed field technicians to discard soil samples from potentially contaminated locations, replace discarded samples with “clean” soil known to satisfy release criteria, and submit the replaced samples for laboratory analysis. Tetra Tech also allegedly manipulated scan results in its database to falsely represent that scans taken at different locations were conducted by the same technician at the same time. The government alleged Tetra Tech benefited by receiving unearned contract award fees and avoiding obligations to perform additional remediation work. 

The settlement resolves allegations brought under the FCA’s qui tam provisions by seven former Tetra Tech employees and contractors, who will receive approximately $11.97 million. The United States also separately recovered $40 million under CERCLA (Superfund) in a consent decree entered in July 2025. 

The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability. 

The case caption is United States ex rel. Jahr, v. Tetra Tech EC, Inc., Case No. 13-3835 (N.D. Cal.). 

Read the DOJ’s press release here.

AiNET Corp. and Deepak Jain Agree to Pay $1.8 Million to Resolve Allegations of Submitting False Claims to the SEC for Data Center Services

On August 24, the DOJ announced that AiNET Corp. and its former CEO Deepak Jain agreed to pay $1.8 million to resolve allegations that they violated the FCA by knowingly submitting false claims for data center services under a contract with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

The government alleged that AiNET fraudulently induced the SEC to enter the contract by falsely certifying that its Beltsville, Maryland, data center met at least Tier III standards as defined by TIA-942. Specifically, the United States alleged that AiNET and Jain falsely certified that experts from an entity called “UpTime Council” had inspected the data center and determined it was Tier IV — when in fact UpTime Council was not an operating company and never inspected the facility.

The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability. 

Read the DOJ’s press release here.

Medicare Advantage Provider Monogram Health Agrees to Pay $2.4 Million to Settle FCA Allegations Over False Diagnosis Codes

On August 24, the DOJ announced that Monogram Health Professional Services PC and Monogram Health Inc., headquartered in Tennessee, agreed to pay $2.4 million to resolve allegations that they violated the FCA by causing the submission of false diagnosis codes to inflate payments received from the Medicare Advantage program. 

According to the government, from January 1, 2021, through December 31, 2023, Monogram — which provides in-home care and related services to Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in MA Plans — knowingly submitted diagnosis codes within four Hierarchical Conditions Categories (HCCs) that were not clinically accurate, not supported by documentation, and did not require or affect patient care, treatment, or management: HCC 21 (Protein-Calorie Malnutrition), HCC 55 (Substance Use Disorder), HCC 48 (Coagulation Defects and Other Specified Hematological Disorders), and HCC 88 (Angina Pectoris). Under its contracts with MAOs, Monogram was eligible to receive higher payments if beneficiaries in its care had higher risk scores, giving it a financial incentive to submit additional diagnosis codes. 

The settlement resolves claims brought under the FCA’s qui tam provisions by Dr. Ajay Gupta, a former Monogram physician, who will receive approximately $380,000. Monogram received cooperation credit under the DOJ’s guidelines for taking cooperation into account in FCA matters. 

The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability. 

The case is captioned United States ex rel. Dr. Ajay Gupta v. Monogram Health Professional Services, Case No. 2:22-cv-08758 MWF-JCx (C.D. Cal.).

Read the DOJ’s press release here.