The Department of Justice has stood up a new National Fraud Enforcement Division and launched a West Coast Strike Force aimed at health care fraud across Arizona, Nevada, and Northern California, and that matters to taxpayers and leaders who back strong enforcement. This effort follows several high-dollar prosecutions that exposed schemes exploiting Medicaid, Medicare, and digital health platforms. Conservative priorities include rooting out fraud, recovering stolen funds, and holding executives and enablers accountable so federal programs work for citizens—not criminals.
This West Coast Strike Force is framed as a data-driven response to a migration of health care fraud into specific districts, and it arrives with prosecutorial muscle from the new Fraud Division. The announcement highlights convictions and dismantled schemes that produced staggering alleged losses and seizures, showing why federal focus was overdue. For Republicans, vigorous enforcement is a straightforward priority: stop theft from taxpayers and restore integrity to health spending.
Officials noted that this expansion targets a region that’s both a technology hub and a migration path for fraudulent operations moving to lower-scrutiny markets. That combination creates fertile ground for bad actors to weaponize digital platforms and billing networks against federal programs. The Strike Force idea is to concentrate resources and expertise where the data indicates the problem is growing fastest, and then break up the networks that make large-scale theft possible.
The Fraud Division launches West Coast Strike Force to target HEALTH CARE FRAUD SCHEMES across AZ, NV, and Northern CA
“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.
This expansion brings enhanced federal enforcement resources to one of the nation’s most significant health care technology hubs in the Northern District of California and what data analytics show is the migration of fraud schemes to 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 health care fraud and distribute over Adderall over the internet, resulting in addiction and patient harm. These convictions followed other recent high-impact prosecutions that were jointly prosecuted by the Strike Force and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices prosecutors:
- 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 health care 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).
The examples listed in the announcement are jaw-dropping: schemes measured in the hundreds of millions and billions, seizures of luxury items, and cross-border fugitives. Those cases show how sophisticated fraud can be when it mixes tech platforms, vulnerable patient populations, and creative billing. Conservatives will argue that the solution starts with aggressive investigation, crisp prosecution, and imposing real consequences so deterrence works.
There’s a practical angle beyond rhetoric: every dollar diverted by fraud weakens programs meant for the elderly, disabled, and low-income Americans. The Strike Force is pitched as a way to recover assets and to disrupt the networks that siphon funds away from legitimate care. Republicans will press for expanding similar task forces where data points to large-scale exploitation.
Critics can claim enforcement alone won’t solve deeper problems in health care administration, and that oversight and program design matter too. That’s fair, but enforcement is a necessary component and a showing of force can deter would-be fraudsters. If federal prosecutors can replicate these results across districts, the payoff is both fiscal and moral: protecting taxpayers and patients alike.
This West Coast push is also a test of coordination between the Fraud Division, U.S. Attorneys’ offices, and state partners who often hold key investigative threads. Breaking complex schemes requires shared intelligence, synchronized legal strategies, and sustained resources. The conservative case is simple: when government spends vast sums on health programs, it must defend those funds robustly and without partisan hesitation.
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