Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced today that Brandie S. Williams, 45, of Dallas, Texas, and Brittany L. Herbert, 39, of Brandywine, Maryland, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge John L. Sinatra, Jr. to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1,000,000 fine. In addition, defendant Herbert also pleaded guilty to bank fraud.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
HONOLULU – United States Attorney Ken Sorenson announced that Lazerrick Lawrence, 52, of Georgia, was sentenced on February 13, 2026 to 20 months in prison and 3 years of supervised release for conspiring with others to obstruct the IRS as part of a fraudulent tax refund scheme.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Today, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division launched investigations into three Michigan public school districts: the Detroit Public Schools Community District, Godfrey-Lee Public Schools, and the Lansing School District (the Michigan School Districts), to determine whether they have included sexual orientation and gender ideology (SOGI) content in any class for grades pre-K-12. If they are teaching SOGI-related content, the investigations will examine whether the schools have notified parents of their right to opt their children out of such instruction. The investigation will also assess whether the Michigan School Districts limit access to single-sex intimate spaces, such as bathrooms and locker rooms, based on biological sex.
“This Department of Justice is fiercely committed to ending the growing trend of local school authorities embedding sexuality and gender ideology in every aspect of public education,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Supreme Court precedent is clear: parents have the right to direct the religious upbringing of their children, which includes exempting them from ideological instruction which conflicts with their families’ sincerely held religious beliefs. And Title IX demands that we guard the safety, dignity, and innocence of our youngest citizens—our children—by ensuring that they have unfettered access to bathrooms and locker rooms of their biological sex.”
The investigations will examine whether these Michigan School Districts, which are recipients of hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer funding are adhering to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and the Supreme Court’s decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, 606 U.S. 522 (2025).
The Civil Rights Division has not reached any conclusions about the subject matter of the investigations.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – A federal grand jury in Salt Lake City returned an indictment today on an alleged drug trafficker, living in the United States illegally, for drug crimes after agents seized 74,000 fentanyl pills during two separate drug seizures in the District of Utah.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Two executives were each sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted for their roles in a years-long scheme to steal from the Affordable Care Act (ACA) program. The defendants — the president of an insurance brokerage firm and the CEO of a marketing company — preyed on tens of thousands of vulnerable consumers to improperly enroll them into fully subsidized ACA plans, for which the defendants earned millions of dollars in commission payments from insurance companies.
“Preying upon medically compromised consumers to rob hundreds of millions from taxpayer-funded programs is evil and unforgivable,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Fraud schemes like this rob citizens and shake faith in our institutions — today’s sentencing is the latest example of this DOJ’s commitment to fighting fraud nationwide.”
“These defendants didn’t just commit fraud; they built a business model around exploiting people at their most vulnerable,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “They targeted vulnerable individuals in the community, manipulated federal health programs for profit, and put victims at risk of losing critical medical care so they could cash in. Stealing hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars while endangering lives is as callous as it gets. The FBI and our partners will continue to track down and hold accountable anyone who treats vulnerable Americans as a payday.”
“These defendants will rightly spend decades in prison for taking advantage of thousands of vulnerable people and stealing millions from a health care safety net designed for working families,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “These defendants were sophisticated, licensed insurance brokers. They had everything and intentionally took advantage of people who had nothing. The message from these sentences is simple: those who seek to line their own pockets with taxpayer dollars, victimize our most vulnerable and deplete federal programs will be held accountable.”
“These defendants designed a purposeful scheme to profit from human suffering, targeting individuals at their most vulnerable moments, solely for personal gain,” said Inspector General T. March Bell of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG). “Their callous greed put lives at risk, and such disregard for human dignity is unacceptable. HHS-OIG will continue to work tirelessly with our law enforcement partners to ensure that those who defraud federal health care programs and endanger public health are brought to justice.”
“Benefit fraud against public programs isn’t just a crime — it hurts real people, especially the most vulnerable,” said IRS Criminal Investigation Chief Guy Ficco. “These sentencings send a powerful message: cheating a federal program comes with serious consequences. IRS-CI and our law enforcement partners will stop at nothing to track down those who exploit these programs and bring them to justice. If you steal from the public, you will be caught — and you will pay the price.”
“These defendants didn’t just steal money — they built a $233 million fraud scheme on the backs of vulnerable people,” said U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida. “They targeted individuals struggling with homelessness, addiction, and mental health challenges, manipulated them for profit, and jeopardized their access to legitimate medical care. In the process, the federal government paid out at least $180 million in fraudulent subsidies — money stolen from the American people and a health care safety net designed for working families. That level of calculated exploitation demands serious prison time, and today’s sentences reflect the scale and cruelty of this crime.”
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Cory Lloyd, 47, of Stuart, Florida, and Steven Strong, 43, of Mansfield, Texas, engaged in an extensive fraud scheme that sought over $233 million in fraudulent ACA plan subsidies for which the federal government paid at least $180 million. As proven at trial, Lloyd and Strong targeted vulnerable, low-income individuals experiencing homelessness, unemployment, and mental health and substance abuse disorders, and, through “street marketers” working on their behalf, sometimes offered bribes to induce those individuals to enroll in subsidized ACA plans. Evidence presented at trial showed that Lloyd and Strong conspired to enroll these vulnerable consumers in ACA plans that were fully subsidized by the federal government by submitting false and fraudulent applications for individuals whose income did not meet the minimum requirements to be eligible for the subsidies. As a result of being enrolled in subsidized ACA plans for which they did not qualify, some of these consumers experienced serious disruptions in their medical care or their prior insurance coverage under Medicaid or other programs. These individuals were put at risk of losing access to life-saving treatments for opioid use disorders, mental health disorders and serious infectious diseases.
The evidence at trial further showed that Lloyd received commissions and other payments from an insurance company in exchange for enrolling consumers in the ACA plans. In turn, Lloyd paid commissions to Strong in exchange for consumer referrals. To maximize these commission payments, Lloyd and Strong used misleading sales scripts and other deceptive sales techniques to convince consumers to state that they would attempt to earn the minimum income necessary to qualify for a subsidized ACA plan, even when the consumer initially stated to insurance agents that they had no income. Lloyd and Strong also conspired to bypass the federal government’s attempts to verify income and other information and deliberately submitted thousands of applications to Medicaid for various individuals in a way that guaranteed their denial so that they could sign up these same consumers for a fully subsidized ACA plan outside of the open enrollment period and therefore maximize their commissions year-round.
Evidence presented at trial showed that the defendants exchanged text messages bragging about the money they were making and belittling the people they victimized in the process. In one text exchange, Strong suggested to Lloyd that the pair send street marketers into hurricane shelters in Florida. Lloyd replied, “It’s a killer idea, if we could pull it off! … I want to rake the shelters! R*pe.” Strong replied, “Haha I’m not kidding,” and Lloyd confirmed, “Me either…let’s f*uck em up.”
The defendants used money from the scheme to purchase luxury homes, including a waterfront home in the Florida Keys depicted below, an 80-foot yacht and a Tesla.
Waterfront Home in the Florida Keys
In Nov. 2025, Lloyd and Strong were both convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. Strong was also convicted of two counts of money laundering. Both Defendants were sentenced to a total of 20 years in prison and ordered to pay $180.6 million in restitution.
A third defendant, Dafud Iza, previously pleaded guilty to major fraud against the United States and was sentenced to 35 months in prison in connection with his role in the scheme.
FBI, HHS-OIG and IRS-CI investigated the case.
Assistant Chief Jamie de Boer and Trial Attorney D. Keith Clouser of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Daren Grove for the Southern District of Florida is handling asset forfeiture.
The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s efforts to combat health care fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program. Since March 2007, this program, currently comprised of eight strike forces operating in federal districts across the country, has charged more than 6,200 defendants who collectively billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $45 billion. In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services, are taking steps to hold providers accountable for their involvement in health care fraud schemes. More information can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – A three-time removed illegal alien and convicted child sex offender from Mexico was sentenced today to 41 months’ imprisonment by Senior U.S. District Court Judge Dale A. Kimball for illegally reentering the United States.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, announced today that MICHAEL O’FLAHERTY pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Philip M. Halpern to making false statements to federal investigators about having disclosed to his former confidential informant turned fentanyl dealer that another law enforcement agency was actively and covertly investigating the drug dealer.
Source: United States Department of Justice
On Wednesday, Feb. 11, a federal grand jury returned an indictment against Jon Christopher Burt (also known as Tank) of Columbus, Mississippi, Gerald Steven Lavender (also known as Jerry Lavender) of Columbus, Mississippi, and Jack Nelson Purvis Jr. (also known as Jay Purvis) of Laurel, Mississippi, for orchestrating bid rigging conspiracies targeting the sale of sports equipment to public schools in Mississippi.
The indictment, filed in the Northern District of Mississippi, alleges that, from approximately July 2010, up to and including July 2023, Burt, Lavender, and Purvis engaged in a conspiracy to rig bids for the sale of sports equipment to Mississippi public schools. The indictment further alleges from approximately June 2016, up to and including September 2022, Burt was engaged in a separate conspiracy to rig bids for the sale of sports equipment to Mississippi public schools. The Defendants’ conduct affected at least 44 public schools and millions of dollars of taxpayer funds.
“Where our country sees an opportunity for children to shine, the defendants conspired to rig bids to benefit themselves,” said Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Daniel Glad of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “Public school funding — in this case for school sports — enriches the lives of these students in Mississippi and will be protected from fraudulent schemes. The Antitrust Division will continue to ensure that opportunities for public school children and taxpayer dollars receive the benefit of a competitive bidding process.”
“Stealing from public schools is stealing from the American people – plain and simple,” said Special Agent in Charge Robert Eikhoff of the FBI Jackson Field Office. “The egregious fraud carried out through bid-rigging schemes represents a blatant betrayal of public trust. Burt, Lavender, and Purvis allowed greed to drive them to mislead multiple schools, manipulate the competitive bidding process, and exploit the desire to provide children with quality sporting equipment for their own personal gain. The FBI and our federal partners will not allow criminals to rob our public-school systems and walk away without consequences. They will be held accountable and face justice.”
According to the indictment, Burt, Lavender, and Purvis engaged in these conspiracies to circumvent the Mississippi procurement laws requiring two competitive bids for procurements over $5,000. Burt, Lavender, and Purvis, along with their co-conspirators, including some school coaches acting as co-conspirators, agreed in advance who would win the bid. The conspirators agreed to provide complementary, intentionally higher-priced fake bids often referred to as “second quotes” to Mississippi public schools, submitted the higher-priced bids to the schools, and received procurements for school sports equipment where the complementary bids were submitted.
Burt, Lavender, and Purvis are charged with one count of violating Section 1 of the Sherman Act, and Burt is charged with an additional count of violating Section 1 of the Sherman Act.
The maximum penalty for the Sherman Act for individuals is 10 years in prison and a $1 million criminal fine. The fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime if either amount is greater than the statutory maximum fine. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
These indictments result from an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into bid rigging and other anticompetitive conduct in the school sports equipment industry being conducted by the Antitrust Division’s Washington Criminal Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Mississippi. Assistant Chief Laura Butte, Trial Attorneys Marc Hedrich and Jessica Bigby, and Senior Litigation Counsel Paul Torzilli are prosecuting the case.
The Justice Department’s Procurement Collusion Strike Force (PCSF) is a joint law enforcement effort to combat antitrust crimes and related fraudulent schemes that impact government procurement, grant and program funding at all levels of government — federal, state and local. To learn more about the PCSF, or to report information on bid rigging, price fixing, market allocation and other anticompetitive conduct related to government spending, go to www.justice.gov/procurement-collusion-strike-force.
Whistleblowers who voluntarily report original information about antitrust and related offenses that result in criminal fines or other recoveries of at least $1 million may be eligible to receive a whistleblower reward. Whistleblower awards can range from 15 to 30 percent of the money collected. For more information on the Antitrust Whistleblower Rewards Program, including a link to submit reports, visit www.justice.gov/atr/whistleblower-rewards.
An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – DEMESMEN PERRIA, (“PERRIA”), age 28, of New Orleans, was indicted on February 6, 2026 for delay of United States mail, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1703(a), announced United States Attorney David I. Courcelle.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
BOSTON – A Nigerian national living in Mexico, who was extradited to the United States, was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston for his role in a scheme to break into Massachusetts tax preparation firms’ computer networks and to file fraudulent tax returns.