Source: United States Navy
NAVAL STATION MAYPORT, Fla. — The Freedom-class littoral combat ship USS Billings (LCS 15) returned to Naval Station Mayport Oct. 10, 2026, following a 6-month deployment to U.S. Fourth Fleet area of operations in support of U.S. Southern Command’s (USSOUTHCOM) mission.
Source: United States Navy
MONTEREY, Calif. – The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) and Marine Corps University (MCU) concluded the Joint MCU-NPS AI Learning Initiatives Hackathon Sept. 18 after four days of developing and testing artificial intelligence (AI) prototypes designed to address challenges in military education and training.
Source: United States Navy
SAN DIEGO — Abraham Lincoln departed its homeport on Nov. 21, 2025. The 321 days since casting off lines from San Diego have taken the carrier and its crew across the Pacific Ocean, through the San Bernardino Strait, Surigao Strait, and Strait of Malacca, and into the South China Sea, Indian Ocean, and North Arabian Sea.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
LAS VEGAS – A Las Vegas man was sentenced today by United States District Judge Gloria M. Navarro to 420 months in prison, followed by 35 years of supervised release for sexual exploitation of children, coercion and enticement, and possession of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The government recommended a sentence of 420 months in prison, followed by a lifetime term of supervised release.
Source: United States Department of Justice
Orlando, Florida – Aljunda Jashae Tompkins (33, Orlando) has been sentenced by U.S. District Judge Anne-Leigh Gaylord Moe to 10 years and 5 months in federal prison for possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. He pleaded guilty on June 26, 2026. United States Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe made the announcement.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
CVS Pharmacy Inc., a Rhode Island-based pharmacy chain, and its related corporate entities (collectively, CVS) have agreed to pay $315 million to resolve allegations that, from October 17, 2013 through December 2, 2025, CVS illegally filled prescriptions for opioids and other controlled substances in violation of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), and then sought payment for many of those invalid prescriptions from Medicare and other federal healthcare programs in violation of the False Claims Act (FCA).
“Not only does this settlement hold bad actors accountable for their fraudulent activities, but Americans are safer because of it,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. “Today’s settlement is a significant milestone in the Justice Department’s efforts to combat the opioid epidemic by cracking down on pharmacies who unlawfully fulfill prescriptions for controlled substances.”
“Today’s settlement requires CVS to implement additional safeguards to ensure that prescriptions for opioids and other controlled substances are dispensed only when medically appropriate,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The remedial measures in this agreement — including proactive monitoring of opioid prescribing patterns — will provide critical protections for patients and federal healthcare programs. The Department of Justice will continue to take steps to prevent the unlawful dispensing of opioids.”
“The opioid epidemic has affected families and communities across Rhode Island and throughout the nation,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles C. Calenda for the District of Rhode Island. “Pharmacies that dispense controlled substances must maintain effective compliance systems to identify and respond to warning signs that prescriptions may be unlawful or medically unnecessary. This settlement demonstrates the importance of those obligations and the consequences of failing to implement safeguards designed to prevent the improper dispensing of controlled substances.”
The settlement resolves allegations in the government’s complaint, which the United States filed on Dec. 13, 2024, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, that CVS knowingly filled prescriptions for controlled substances that lacked a legitimate medical purpose, were not valid, and/or were not issued in the usual course of professional practice. The United States alleged that CVS dispensed prescriptions for dangerous and excessive quantities of opioids, opioid prescriptions filled too early, and “trinity” prescriptions, a dangerous and abused combination of an opioid, a benzodiazepine, and a muscle relaxant. CVS also allegedly filled prescriptions for controlled substances from “pill mill” prescribers who issued large numbers of controlled substance prescriptions without any medical purpose. Further, the United States alleged that CVS pharmacists filled these prescriptions despite clear red flags indicating that there was a high likelihood that the prescriptions lacked a legitimate medical purpose, were not valid, or were not issued in the course of professional practice. Many of these prescriptions were ultimately billed to and reimbursed by federal healthcare programs.
The complaint further alleged that CVS’s violations stemmed from corporate-imposed performance metrics, incentive compensation, and staffing policies that prioritized corporate profits over patient safety. CVS failed to employ enough pharmacists to serve patients, comply with CVS’s legal obligations, and meet corporate performance metrics. In addition, CVS’s policies allegedly prevented pharmacists from warning one another about certain problematic prescribers.
In addition to the monetary payment announced today, CVS has entered into a memorandum of agreement with DEA to address its future obligations in dispensing controlled substances. This agreement requires CVS to establish a hotline for both employees and the public to report suspected illegal dispensing of controlled substances, proactively monitor the dispensing patterns of its pharmacies to identify and address potentially illegal dispensing, and establish a process to evaluate prescribers suspected of illegal prescribing.
“This settlement agreement highlights DEA’s commitment to protecting the health and safety of Americans while holding CVS accountable for dispensing unlawful prescriptions and endangering the public,” said DEA Assistant Administrator Cheri Oz. “DEA is unwavering in its commitment to protect public health and ensuring pharmacies adhere to the highest standards of responsible dispensing. We will continue to work closely with law enforcement, regulatory agencies, and the healthcare community to prevent the misuse of controlled substances, and we will hold those who jeopardize the safety of our citizens accountable.”
“Behind every unlawful prescription is a patient who could be put in harm’s way,” said Acting Deputy Inspector General for Investigations Scott J. Lampert of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS‑OIG). “The allegations in this case point to warning signs that should never be overlooked. HHS‑OIG will not tolerate conduct that jeopardizes lives, and we will continue to pursue those who betray the trust placed in them.”
The civil settlement resolves a civil lawsuit filed by Hillary Estright, a former CVS employee, under the whistleblower provision of the FCA, which authorizes private parties to sue on behalf of the United States and receive a share of any recovery. It also permits the United States to intervene and take over such lawsuits, as it did here. The amount to be recovered by the private whistleblower has not yet been determined. The qui tam case is captioned United States ex rel. Hillary Estright v. CVS Health Corporation, et al., No. 22-cv-00222 (D.R.I.).
This year the Administration launched the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud and the National Fraud Enforcement Division to enhance the Administration’s war on fraud, waste, and abuse in federal programs. When unscrupulous actors exploit these programs for their own financial gain, they defraud the government, harm the people these programs are designed to aid and protect, and undermine American businesses that play by the rules. The Civil Division’s FCA enforcement plays a critical role in combatting such fraudulent schemes, recovering billions of dollars for the American taxpayers, and holding wrongdoers accountable. FCA matters will continue to be on the forefront of the battle against fraud, and the Civil Division’s FCA work will support and advance the mission of the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud and the National Fraud Enforcement Division.
The resolution obtained in this matter was the result of a coordinated effort between the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch, Fraud Section, and the Enforcement & Affirmative Litigation Branch, along with the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices for the District of Rhode Island, Eastern District of Virginia, Eastern District of Texas, and District of Hawaii. The DEA’s Office of Diversion Control, Los Angeles Field Division, Richmond District Office, and Office of Chief Counsel led this case with substantial assistance from Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Defense Health Agency (DHA), Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Department of Labor (DOL) Office of Inspector General, and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
The investigation and resolution of this matter illustrate the government’s emphasis on combating healthcare fraud. One of the most powerful tools in this effort is the False Claims Act. Tips and complaints from all sources about potential fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement, can be reported to the Department of Health and Human Services at 800-HHS-TIPS (800-447-8477).
The United States is represented in this matter by attorneys from the Justice Department’s Civil Division Commercial Litigation Branch, Fraud Section (Assistant Director Natalie Waites and Trial Attorneys Claire Norsetter and Megan Engel) and Enforcement & Affirmative Litigation Branch (Deputy Director Lisa Hsiao and Trial Attorneys Kathleen Brunson and Katherine Ho), as well as from the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices for the District of Rhode Island (Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachna Vyas), Eastern District of Virginia (Assistant U.S. Attorney John Beerbower), Eastern District of Texas (Assistant U.S. Attorney James Gillingham), and District of Hawaii (Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy J. Weinstein).
The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability.
Note: Find the CSA agreement here and the FCA agreement here.
Source: United States Department of Justice
United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Ryan Raybould and FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge R. Joseph Rothrock today announced today that federal agents have disrupted a major illicit laptop‑hosting network that enabled Democratic People’s Republic of Korea IT workers to unlawfully access U.S. corporate systems using stolen or falsified American identities.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Tampa, Florida – Stanley Richardson Joseph (28, Brooklyn, NY), Kallie Nicole Valerie Halliday (26, Brooklyn, NY), and Kristy Marie Bochecchio (47, Tampa) have been charged in a federal indictment with conspiracy, theft of government money or property, and aggravated identity theft. If convicted on all counts, each faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison. The indictment also notifies the defendants that the United States intends to forfeit the proceeds traceable to the offenses. U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe made the announcement.
Source: United States Department of Justice
Dozens of Arrests; More Than 3.7 Million Accounts Removed; More Than 100 Trafficking Victims Rescued
Note: B-roll and photos related to the enforcement actions can be obtained at: https://spaces.hightail.com/space/UACsRDqzHp
Transnational criminal scam networks operating from West Africa suffered major disruptions last week during a coordinated international “Joint Disruption Week,” an effort that produced arrests, seizures, and the largest-ever takedown of fraudulent social media accounts linked to scam centers in the region, announced the Department of Justice.
“Criminals beware: Law enforcement from around the world are working together, and with private industry, to find you, stop your schemes, and bring you to justice,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The Criminal Division’s Cyber-Enabled Scam Initiative (CSI) was built for this brand of collaboration. The millions of bogus social media accounts taken down and dozens of arrests that took place as part of Joint Disruption Week are just the beginning. I want to thank the United Kingdom (UK)’s National Crime Agency (NCA) and its Director General, Graeme Biggar, for hosting this effort, as well as everyone who participated. I am especially grateful to the courageous law enforcement officers in Ghana and Nigeria who put themselves in harm’s way to seize evidence and arrest the criminals who prey on innocent people.”
“Transnational fraud demands a transnational response,” said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro for the District of Columbia, founder of the Scam Center Strike Force. “I have partnered with the NCA and the Crown Prosecutor for England and Wales to push forward cases on both sides of the Atlantic; criminals are not hindered by borders and neither are we. We will deploy our team wherever in the world transnational criminals target innocent victims.”
The “Joint Disruption Week” events mark the first coordinated effort focused specifically on West Africa, underscoring the growing global commitment to dismantling increasingly sophisticated transnational scam networks.
The operation included members of the U.S. Department of Justice, the Scam Center Strike Force under the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, FBI, U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Department of the Treasury, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF), the UK’s NCA, the Nigerian Joint Case Team on Cybercrimes, the Nigeria Police Force – National Cybercrime Center, Ghanaian Cyber Security Authority, and private sector partners.
Additional participants included law enforcement agencies from Australia, Canada, Ghana, India, New Zealand, Nigeria, along with INTERPOL and additional cybercrime units. Several tech giants also played a key role. The large-scale effort was hosted by the UK NCA in London.
“Thanks to brilliant partnership with the Department of Justice and the private sector, across multiple African countries, we arrested dozens of criminal actors, seized hundreds of devices, identified at least $11 million in potentially freezable funds, and truly saved lives,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “This is what happens when law enforcement executes with precision across the interagency. We are demolishing Scam Centers across the globe and crushing a criminal industry preying on American citizens.”
“Fraud is a global problem and it takes partnership working across international boundaries to tackle it,” said Nick Sharp, Deputy Director of Fraud at the NCA. “Hosting such a rich and dedicated team of law enforcement and technology companies at NCA’s headquarters enabled us to utilize the power of partnerships and strike back at a significant set of criminals who inflict misery on thousands of victims of fraud. Fraudsters can operate from anywhere and will target victims both domestically and globally. The NCA will continue to work with international and private sector partners to tackle fraudsters working upstream, overseas and online. Collaborating in this way sends a clear signal to criminals that the combined capabilities of law enforcement and industry means that we will relentlessly pursue them and the infrastructure they rely on no matter where they operate.”
During the week beginning Oct. 6, investigators and industry partners exchanged real-time intelligence across jurisdictions, enabling rapid identification and disruption of scam centers in Nigeria, Ghana, and other African countries. Many of the targeted operations were tied to schemes victimizing individuals in the United States, UK, and other countries around the world.
Several private industry partners, including Meta, Adobe, Binance, Coinbase, Cyjax, Elliptic, Chainalysis, Flashpoint, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Silent Push, Starlink and TRM Labs collaborated with international law enforcement in the event, and voluntarily took action on their own networks to disrupt scammers using their platforms to perpetrate fraud. These companies reported to the Department that they “removed more than 3.7 million accounts, Pages and Groups targeting people in the U.S., UK and beyond, and shared leads on over 30 suspected scam centers with law enforcement, resulting in dozens of arrests, the rescue of trafficking victims, and cryptocurrency seizures. In total over $11 million dollars in potential freezable funds were identified by the private sector partners. Meta played a key role in coordinating the event and encouraging broad private sector participation to maximize scam compound disruption.
Among the key accomplishments:
A consortium of international law enforcement agencies made 28 arrests of individuals tied to the criminal scam operations, including:
According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), investment scams were reported 72,984 times in 2025, with cryptocurrency investment fraud comprising 72 percent of that category. Reported losses from these scams rose from $3.96 billion in 2023 to $5.8 billion in 2024. Reported losses for investment scams with a cryptocurrency nexus rose 24 percent in 2025 to over $7.2 billion, according to IC3’s released 2025 annual report. Those figures, based largely on victim reports, are believed to significantly underrepresent actual losses, as many victims do not report to law enforcement. According to one government report, a conservative estimate of the annual value of funds stolen by scam syndicates worldwide approached $64 billion as of the end of 2023.
Strengthening Accountability for Transnational Scam Operations
Criminal scam centers operating in West Africa mirror those uncovered in Southeast Asia — highly organized enterprises that recruit workers, train them in social engineering, and deploy multi‑platform fraud campaigns targeting global victims. While technology companies can significantly disrupt online infrastructure used to perpetuate these schemes, true accountability requires sustained law enforcement action against the individuals and organizations behind them.
The FBI, The Scam Center Strike Force, and its international partners remain committed to advancing this model of public‑private collaboration and expanding global efforts to dismantle criminal networks responsible for online fraud.
Victims in Ghana scam center
Scam center in Ghana
U.S. Federal agencies working at NCA in London
Electronic devices seized in Ghana
Electronic Devices Seized in Ghana
Scammers in Ghana
On March 6, 2026, President Trump signed an Executive Order directing the Administration to prioritize cybercrime, fraud, and predatory schemes draining American families of their life savings. Through the Executive Order, President Trump is unleashing every available tool to stop foreign-backed criminal networks that exploit vulnerable Americans through cyber-enabled fraud. The Criminal Division’s Cyber-Enabled Scam Initiative, Scam Center Strike Force under U.S. Attorney Pirro, and the Homeland Security Task Force National Coordination Center (NCC) are critical in executing the mission outlined in the President’s Order.
The Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, through its Cyber-Enabled Scam Initiative (CSI), works to disrupt and stop cyber-enabled criminal networks that prey on Americans. CSI brings together expert prosecutors from across the Division to accelerate the prosecution of cyber-enabled financial crimes, including investment and crypto scams, government imposter schemes, romance and inheritance scams, financially motivated sextortion, lottery and sweepstakes scams, and other predatory schemes. With nationwide jurisdiction and global reach, CSI leverages every available tool to dismantle criminal operations, pursue bad actors, recover criminal proceeds, and obtain justice for victims. The Criminal Division partners with U.S. Attorney’s Offices across the country.
The Scam Center Strike Force was officially launched by U.S. Attorney Pirro in November 2025 to address the growing threat posed by Chinese organized crime syndicates operating scam centers, primarily in Southeast Asia. The Strike Force targets cryptocurrency investment fraud, cyber-enabled fraud, human trafficking, and money laundering operations that have cost American victims billions of dollars. The Scam Center Strike Force has been joined in its work by the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service, Justice Department’s Criminal Division, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, IRS Criminal Investigation, and HSI, as well as the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Districts of Alaska, Hawaii, Eastern North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Western Washington. The Strike Force works in collaboration with other federal agencies, including the Treasury and State Departments. The Strike Force works in strategic partnership with private industry and calls on all U.S. businesses to take more proactive steps to protect users from scam operations.
The Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF)’s NCC, established by Executive Order, is responsible for coordinating Federal efforts to detect, disrupt, dismantle, and deter — including by involving the private sector as appropriate — cyber-enabled criminal activity conducted by foreign Transnational Criminal Organizations and associated networks that target U.S. persons, businesses, critical infrastructure, or public services.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Tallahassee, Florida – Chandler Brittain Smith, 27, of Tallahassee, Florida, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker to four years in federal prison for one count of attempted enticement of a minor and one count of attempted transfer of obscene material to minors. The plea was announced by John P. Heekin, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.