Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The Justice Department announced today that it has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York against the State of New York Department of Health, New York State Medicaid Director Amir Bassiri, and Public Partnerships LLC (PPL), an Alpharetta, Georgia-based company that has managed New York’s Consumer Directed Personal Assistant Program (CDPAP) since 2025.

“New York’s backroom deal with PPL has cost taxpayers millions of dollars and cast countless Medicaid patients to the curb,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald for the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division. “Today’s action is the latest reminder that the Justice Department is mobilizing every available tool to protect taxpayer-funded programs from fraud and corruption.”

“One of the Justice Department’s key priorities is protecting the public fisc and delivering savings to American taxpayers,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “New York’s failure to police a favored vendor that unlawfully siphoned millions of dollars of Medicaid funding is egregious and betrays the public trust. The Justice Department is acting to ensure that federal laws regarding truthful statements and fair dealing in federal health care programs are upheld and to prevent additional harm from being exacted against the public by Public Partnerships LLC and New York.”

The lawsuit aims to stop an alleged fraud scheme by which PPL has generated millions of dollars in unauthorized profits funded by federal taxpayers in connection with its takeover of New York’s $10 billion-dollar CDPAP program. The lawsuit alleges that the New York Department of Health awarded PPL the lucrative CDPAP contract after conducting a sham bid process, and then, despite learning of PPL’s intent to deviate from the representations made in its bid and violate the financial terms of the contract, failed to take action to hold PPL accountable and to protect public funds from misuse, resulting in a fraud scheme that remains unchecked to this day. The lawsuit seeks to enjoin all defendants from making further misrepresentations about the CDPAP program and from charging American taxpayers millions of dollars unauthorized by the contract.  

CDPAP is a Medicaid program that provides home care through lay caregivers to Medicaid patients with disabilities or significant medical needs. In spring 2024, the New York Legislature passed a statute that consolidated the management of CDPAP from hundreds of pre-existing “fiscal intermediaries” to a single fiscal intermediary, setting up one of the most lucrative contracts for administering a Medicaid program in the nation. The lawsuit alleges that although New York purported to conduct a fair bidding process to select the single fiscal intermediary during summer 2024, New York pre-selected PPL for the billion-dollar contract by conducting a sham bid process that resulted in PPL being awarded the contract in late 2024. 

The lawsuit further alleges that PPL and New York repeatedly made knowing misrepresentations to the public concerning the date by which PPL’s transition could be completed, intentionally concealing that, since the contract’s inception, both PPL and New York were aware that the transition would likely not be complete by April 1, 2025 – the contractually designated transition date – and would result in severe disruptions to patient care and harm to patients across the state. Worse yet, PPL and New York, without explanation, have disregarded key limits the contract imposed on the revenues and profits PPL was entitled to receive under the contract – limits that were central to the goal of saving hundreds of millions of dollars through the CDPAP transition. 

Instead of ensuring that PPL complied with the contract and protecting the American taxpayers, New York has permitted PPL to raid the CDPAP program of millions of dollars in excess revenues, billing at hourly rates in excess of those anticipated by New York prior to the contract award. As a result of PPL’s self-dealing and New York’s failure to require it to comply with the terms of the contract, the purported cost savings that the CDPAP transition was to provide largely have been erased. To date, New York and PPL repeatedly and willfully have misled the public and the New York Legislature concerning important aspects of the CDPAP transition, including, without limitation, the gross mismanagement of the program by PPL and New York. 

This case was investigated by the Civil Division’s Enforcement and Affirmative Litigation Branch. This case is being litigated by Assistant Director Patrick Runkle and Trial Attorneys Francisco Unger and Shimeng Zhang.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Tallahassee, Florida – Forrest Alan Price, 32, of Tallahassee, Florida, pleaded guilty in federal court to possession of synthetic cathinone and 5 grams or more of methamphetamine with intent to distribute; carrying a firearm during a drug-trafficking crime, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. 

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Baltimore, Maryland – A member of a violent extremist network learned his fate in federal court, today, for sexually abusing minors and other crimes. U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Maddox sentenced Erik Lee Madison, 21, of Halethorpe, Maryland, to 30 years in prison for sexually exploiting a child and cyberstalking. 

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A Mexican national was sentenced today to 14 years in prison for his role in a conspiracy to import approximately 1,900 kilograms of cocaine into the United States.

According to court documents, Jesus Rauda-Avila, 46, was a member of a Mexico-based drug trafficking organization (DTO) led by Marisela Flores-Torruco that was responsible for importing multi-hundred-kilogram quantities of cocaine into the United States. 

“Jesus Rauda-Avila conspired with a drug trafficking organization to import almost 2,000 kilograms of cocaine into the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “This level of Mexican DTO importation is the root of the injection of drugs and violence into our communities. Because of people like this defendant, countless Americans lives are ruined, and their families are left picking up the pieces. The Criminal Division will pursue drug traffickers at this level and remove them from our law-abiding society.”

“This case highlights DEA’s global reach and commitment to justice for those who threaten the safety and security of the United States,” said Special Agent in Charge Cindy Marx of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Special Operations Division. “The case against Rauda-Avila exposes the scope of international drug conspiracies, and today’s sentence reflects what’s possible when DEA, as part of HSTF, works hand-in-hand with our federal and international partners to dismantle the criminal organizations that threaten Americans.”

The DTO, which had operations in New York, Texas, and elsewhere in the United States, sourced its cocaine from Colombia and provided logistical and financial support to coordinate the narcotics’ passage through Central America and Mexico and into the United States. During the investigation, law enforcement made several cocaine seizures, including approximately 971 kilograms of cocaine on April 21, 2017, and 500 kilograms of cocaine on May 10, 2017, nearly all of which was attributable to the DTO.

From 2016 to October 2017, in coordination with Flores-Torruco’s DTO, the defendant arranged and directed the transportation of funds, drivers, and vehicles from northern Mexico to southern Mexico to purchase and pick up cocaine, which was subsequently transported into the United States for distribution. The defendant conducted at least ten such narcotics purchases in partnership with Flores-Torruco’s DTO, each involving between 100 and 400 kilograms of cocaine.

Rauda-Avila pleaded guilty to conspiring to import cocaine to the United States. Three of the defendant’s co-conspirators — Marisela Flores-Torruco, Qiyun Chen, and Jose Francisco Mendoza-Gomez — have been convicted in the Eastern District of Virginia for their roles within the DTO, as have several individuals involved with the related Chinese money laundering network. Flores-Torruco pleaded guilty to possession, manufacture, or distribution of a controlled substance and was sentenced to 16 years and 8 months in prison. Chen pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Mendoza-Gomez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The DEA’s Special Operations Division, Bilateral Investigations Unit, investigated the case, with assistance from DEA’s offices in Cartagena (Colombia), Bogota (Colombia), Panama City, Mexico City, and Guatemala City. U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service provided substantial assistance in the investigation. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs (OIA) provided significant assistance in securing the defendant’s arrest and extradition from Mexico.

Trial Attorney Chelsea R. Rooney of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Edgardo J. Rodriguez and Christopher M. Carter for the Eastern District of Viriginia prosecuted the case.

This case is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. HSTF Washington, D.C., comprises agents and officers from the FBI; Homeland Security Investigations; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; DEA; Diplomatic Security Service; U.S. Marshals Service; U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service; Naval Criminal Investigative Service; Transportation Security Administration Federal Air Marshals Service; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; Enforcement and Removal Operations; and Washington Baltimore HIDTA, with the prosecution being led by the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section (MNF) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

MNF’s mission is to take the profit out of crime, eliminate drug cartels, and protect the U.S. financial system. MNF pursues criminal prosecutions and criminal and civil asset recovery actions involving: financial facilitators who launder profits for criminals; financial institutions and their officers and employees whose actions threaten the U.S. financial system and financial institutions; international money launderers who support transnational organized crime; and the top command and control of international drug trafficking organizations.

MNF’s Money Laundering and Forfeiture Unit investigates and prosecutes sophisticated money laundering schemes involving financial facilitators, gatekeepers, and other individuals and entities laundering criminal proceeds, and litigates complex civil forfeiture cases to recover assets on behalf of victims.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. 
 

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton announced that MATTHEW BLAKE MORROW-WU, a/k/a “Blake Wu,” a/k/a “Blake Ho,” a/k/a “Blake Morrow,” a/k/a “Matthew Wu,” a/k/a “Matthew Ho,” a/k/a “Matthew Blake Morrow,” was sentenced today to 160 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein for perpetrating a scheme to defraud a Manhattan architecture firm during the COVID-19 pandemic, after which he obstructed justice and pled from prosecution.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Today, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division moved to intervene in a lawsuit challenging a program by the City of Evanston, Illinois, that distributes cash payments and financial assistance for housing solely to black persons, and their descendants, and not to similarly situated persons of other races. The United States’ proposed complaint in intervention alleges that the city’s actions violate the Equal Protection Cause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Fair Housing Act. 

“Under the pretext of paying reparations for events more than 100 years ago, the City of Evanston has chosen to distribute millions of dollars in cash and housing benefits to people because of the color of their skin or the color of the skin of their parents, grandparents, or great grandparents,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “There are sound ways for a city to remedy past discrimination or direct resources to its most vulnerable citizens and neighborhoods. Simply handing out money based on race, however, is not the answer. It is race discrimination, pure and simple. And it is illegal.”

“The Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed that government actions classifying citizens by race are presumptively unconstitutional,” said U.S. Attorney Andrew S. Boutros for the Northern District of Illinois. “The Constitution demands that the government treat citizens as individuals, not as members of a racial class. Distributing public funds based on an individual’s ancestry or race divides the citizenry and establishes the very hierarchy the Equal Protection Clause was designed to dismantle.”

In 2019, the city adopted the “Local Reparations Restorative Housing Program.” Under this program, black persons who lived in the City of Evanston as an adult at any time between 1919 and 1969, as well as their children, grandchildren, or great grandchildren, can receive $25,000 in the form of cash payments, which the recipient can use for any purpose, or financial assistance for purchasing, repairing, or maintaining a primary residence in the city. The city has not identified any specific acts of discrimination that violated the constitution or a statute that these payments are intended to remedy. Nor does the city require any evidence that recipients or their ancestors experienced discrimination when they lived in the city. Race alone determines whether a current or former resident or their descendant receives $25,000 in cash or financial assistance for housing. To date, the city has paid over $5 million and it plans to distribute millions more as funds become available.     

In 2024, descendants of persons who had lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969, but who were not black, filed a lawsuit, Flinn, et al. v. City of Evanston, No. 24-cv-4269 (N.D. Ill.), challenging their exclusion from the city’s program as a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The court denied the city’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit in March 2026. That same month, the United States opened an investigation of the program under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Fair Housing Act. The city refused to cooperate in the United States’ investigation. The United States now seeks to intervene in the lawsuit. 

The United States alleges that the program violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. It also alleges that by offering and providing financial assistance for housing because of race, the city has violated the Fair Housing Act.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Earlier today, in federal court in Brooklyn, Joseph Taylor McKeel, a public school teacher at a high school in New York City, pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography.  The proceeding was held before United States Magistrate Judge Peggy Cross-Goldenberg.  When sentenced, McKeel faces up to 20 years’ imprisonment.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

BOSTON – A Dorchester man pleaded guilty on June 11, 2026 in federal court in Boston to the robbery of a local bank. The defendant has a prior federal conviction for bank robbery and state convictions for armed and unarmed robberies.