MIL Security Engine-1

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Today, the Justice Department and the National Fraud Enforcement Division announced the creation of the Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program (WHIP), the first ever whistleblower rewards program that pays an up-front award for tips leading to criminal charges.

“Protecting the American people from fraud remains a top priority for the Department of Justice,” said Attorney General Todd Blanche. “The Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program (WHIP) offers everyone the opportunity to be part of the solution, help expose fraud, and be rewarded quickly for their efforts. I urge all Americans to use this program and play an active role in bringing fraudsters to justice.”

“The Fraud Division was built to strike at the heart of fraud schemes, dismantling them and bringing criminals to justice faster than ever before,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division. “The creation of the Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program (WHIP) is exactly the kind of new and innovative tool we are bringing to the fight against fraud. This groundbreaking program will enlist the public as part of the fraud-fighting apparatus and reward them quickly for helping the country in the war on fraud.”

On October 1, Assistant Attorney General McDonald issued Directive 26-12: Corporate Enforcement in the Fight Against Fraud and directed Division leadership, in consultation with law enforcement partners, to design and implement policies and programs that appropriately incentivize whistleblowers to bring forward credible information pertaining to fraud and provide the public with transparency to the extent possible regarding those policies and programs. Only nineteen days later, the  Fraud Rewards Program is being announced to solve a critical gap in existing whistleblower programs.

The Fraud Rewards Program will pay whistleblowers an award of $10,000 to $30,000 for information leading to criminal charges relating to certain subject areas. While most existing Government whistleblower rewards programs issue awards only after the final resolution of a criminal matter, including the forfeiture and appeals process, the Fraud Rewards Program rewards whistleblowers at a much earlier stage of prosecution. Such early-stage rewards encourage prompt disclosure of information by giving whistleblowers more certainty about the amount and timing of a possible reward payment, while still leaving whistleblowers eligible for potentially larger rewards should their tips ultimately lead to large financial penalties or forfeiture. This new framework gives whistleblowers much-needed certainty and speed, and will incentivize citizens who are aware of fraud to report it.

The Fraud Rewards Program offers rewards for information relating to Federal health care offenses and related crimes, and fraud on government programs and benefits administered by the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Education, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of War, and the Small Business Administration. For fraud involving health care offenses, the Fraud Rewards Program will prioritize submissions involving hospice, home health care, day care, and special services fraud.   

Members of the public can report fraud by going to www.america.gov/fraud. Participants in the Fraud Rewards Program remain eligible for additional awards through other rewards programs, including the Criminal Division’s Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program.

The Fraud Rewards Program terms and conditions are available at www.justice.gov/fraud/whistleblower. Awards will be made in the Justice Department’s sole discretion following the filing of criminal charges. The Fraud Rewards Program is the latest crime-fighting tool implemented by the Fraud Division. The Department of the Treasury is committing $25 million to ensure the program’s successful implementation.

On April 7, the Department of Justice announced the creation of the Fraud Division. The Fraud Division is laser-focused on investigating and prosecuting those who commit fraud against the American people. The Department’s work to combat fraud supports President Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a whole-of-government effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal benefit programs.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Today, United States District Court Judge Judge María Antongiorgi-Jordán sentenced Victor J. Pérez-Fernández, a/k/a “La Cone”, “Vitu”, “Vitikin”, “Enano” to serve a total sentence of 540 months of imprisonment (45-years) for drug trafficking and firearm violations, announced Héctor Ramírez-Carbó, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico. The Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the case. Pérez-Fernández pleaded guilty on June 10, 2026.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Juan Hernandez Ochoa, 51, of Mexico, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and marijuana for unlawful importation into the United States.

According to court documents, Hernandez Ochoa worked from 2015 to 2017 as a distributor and transporter for various drug traffickers affiliated with the Sinaloa Cartel. Hernandez Ochoa employed a network of associates to transport marijuana and methamphetamine from Mexican border towns into the United States using private planes, human couriers, tunnels, semi-trailer trucks, and vehicles with hidden compartments. He also coordinated the transportation of cash for the purchase of drugs and its repatriation from the U.S. following their sale. Hernandez Ochoa pleaded guilty to moving hundreds of pounds of methamphetamine and tens of thousands of pounds of marijuana from Mexico to the United States.

“Juan Hernandez Ochoa will no longer be able to enrich himself by pushing poison into our communities thanks to the prosecutors involved in this case and the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by President Trump,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Today’s guilty plea is another major blow to the Sinaloa Cartel and the transnational criminal organizations that profit from addiction, violence, and death. Our message is simple: we will not stop until these cartels are dismantled and their leaders are brought to justice.”

“Combating violent crime, disrupting drug trafficking organizations, and holding accountable dangerous individuals like Mr. Hernandez Ochoa remains a top priority,” said Special Agent in Charge Rebecca Day of FBI Phoenix. “This investigation highlights the mission of the HSTF, which includes targeting leaders from transnational criminal organizations and dismantling drug trafficking networks, wherever they operate. We will continue to work with our partners to produce real and impactful results for our communities.”

Hernandez Ochoa pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine and 1,000 kilograms or more of marijuana for importation into the United States. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 2, 2027, and faces a maximum penalty of life in prison. A federal district court judge will determine his sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. 

The FBI Tucson field office is investigating the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs provided valuable assistance in Hernandez Ochoa’s extradition, and the Justice Department thanks the Government of Mexico for its assistance in securing Hernandez Ochoa’s presence in the United States for prosecution.

Trial Attorneys Jayce Born, Michael Lang, Richard Greene, and Kirk Handrich of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section’s (MNF) Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Unit are prosecuting the case.

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 Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Unit investigates and prosecutes the top command-and-control elements of international drug cartels, drug trafficking organizations, and related transnational criminal organizations.

This case is part of the 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 U.S. 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.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

DES MOINES, Iowa –An Urbandale man was sentenced on October 1, 2026 to 24 months in federal prison for making false statements on a Small Business Administration (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan application and false declarations during subsequent bankruptcy proceedings.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Roosevelt Tobias “Toby” Bailey, a Duluth, Georgia resident, and Alvin Jones, a former prosecutor and current practicing attorney, have been indicted, arrested, and arraigned in federal court on charges arising from two alleged multi-year, multi-million-dollar Ponzi schemes. 

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

LAS VEGAS — The Department of Justice and FBI announced today results of the personnel surge in support of Operation Not Forgotten 2026, which focuses on unresolved cases in Indian country with a priority on cases involving violence against women and children, including those who are missing or murdered.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A Martinsburg, West Virginia man has admitted to his work in a large-scale drug trafficking organization that spanned from Maryland to the Northern District of West Virginia, U.S. Attorney Matthew L. Harvey announced today. Stanley Delano Lum, 41, pleaded guilty to a distribution of cocaine charge. 

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Ryan Raybould today announced that Dallas Independent School District has agreed to a $1 million civil settlement to resolve allegations it falsely certified compliance with state mandatory reporting laws while receiving federal special education funds. Of that amount, $145,000 is a penalty and $855,000 is additional funding for district-wide reforms, including reporting audits, law-enforcement protocols and mandatory training.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

DENVER – The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado is pleased to announce that the Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs has awarded the town of Manassa, Colorado, $573,500 to make significant improvements to the town’s police department.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A Guatemalan man, Rigoberto Ramon Miranda-Orozco, 39, was sentenced today to 30 years in prison for his involvement in a 2022 mass casualty alien smuggling event in San Antonio, Texas, that resulted in 53 deaths and 11 injured.

“Alien smuggling organizations rely on people like Miranda-Orozco to facilitate their criminal conspiracies and put people on the dangerous path of illegally entering the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “By refusing to secure our borders, the Biden administration empowered human smugglers across the globe to take advantage of our country and break our laws for financial gain. These smugglers value profits over people, and their disregard of the risks or dangerous conditions in which they carry out their schemes too often result in tragic consequences like in this case with 53 people dead. Under President Trump, the Criminal Division and Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA) will sustain maximum pressure on these dangerous criminals to hold them accountable for preventable tragedies and protect our borders.”

“Of the dozens of deceased aliens found in the tractor trailer in June 2022, 21 of those were from Guatemala — a country that Mirando-Orozco called home and a place where he thought he could hide from justice,” said U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons for the Western District of Texas. “He was wrong. Miranda-Orozco was personally responsible for smuggling two Guatemalans who died in that horrific tragedy, and thanks to our law enforcement efforts and our strong partnership with the Office of the Attorney General of Guatemala, he was found, extradited, and will now spend the rest of his life in a U.S. federal prison. To those who believe they can avoid accountability by cowering in a foreign country, Miranda-Orozco thought the same. Because of this Administration’s commitment to holding accountable all of those who support transnational criminal organizations, he now knows otherwise.”

“This sentencing delivers a measure of accountability for a tragedy that claimed 53 lives and devastated multiple families,” said Acting Executive Associate Director John A. Condon of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). “Miranda-Orozco and his co-conspirators treated human lives as cargo, knowingly placing vulnerable people in lethal conditions to advance their criminal enterprise. HSI worked relentlessly with our domestic and international law enforcement partners to identify his role in this horrific event, secure his extradition and bring him before a U.S. court. HSI will continue pursuing the transnational criminal networks that profit from human smuggling and threaten the safety and security of our communities.”

According to court documents, Miranda-Orozco conspired with other human smugglers to facilitate the travel of multiple aliens from Guatemala through Mexico, and ultimately, to the United States. Miranda-Orozco organized and facilitated the smuggling of aliens who ended up dying or injured in the back of a tractor trailer that was found in San Antonio on June 27, 2022. The tractor trailer was loaded with 64 aliens, and investigators later determined that it had traveled approximately 156 miles from Laredo, Texas, to San Antonio in 90-degree Fahrenheit heat without functioning air conditioning in the trailer. First responders pronounced 48 aliens dead at the scene and five aliens later died at the hospital, totaling 53 deceased. Among the deceased were six juveniles and at least one pregnant woman. Two of Miranda-Orozco’s clients, both illegal aliens from Guatemala, died in the tractor trailer mass casualty incident, and another sustained serious bodily injuries but survived after a lengthy hospital stay. According to court documents, Miranda-Orozco admitted that he arranged for the aliens’ transportation and accommodations throughout Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States. 

Photo depicting size of trailer.

Image of claw marks inside trailer.

In August 2024, Miranda-Orozco was arrested in Guatemala pursuant to a U.S. request for his extradition. His arrest was part of a large-scale takedown during which Guatemalan law enforcement executed multiple search and arrest warrants across Guatemala. He was extradited from Guatemala in March 2025. 

Miranda-Orozco pleaded guilty on July 2 to conspiracy to bring an alien into the United States resulting in death; aiding and abetting bringing an alien into the United States resulting in death; and aiding and abetting bringing an alien into the United States resulting in serious bodily injury. 

HSI San Antonio led U.S. investigative efforts, working in concert with HSI Guatemala’s invaluable team members, and the HSI Human Smuggling Unit in Washington, D.C. HSI received substantial assistance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s National Targeting Center/Operation Sentinel; U.S. Border Patrol; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the San Antonio Police Department; the San Antonio Fire Department; and the Palestine Police Department. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs worked with law enforcement partners in Guatemala to secure the arrest and extradition of Miranda-Orozco and, along with the Criminal Division’s Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (OPDAT), provided crucial assistance in this matter.

The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Alexandra Skinnion of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section (HRSP), First Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Fuchs for the Western District of Texas, and Assistant U.S. Attorney/JTFA prosecutor Jose Luis Acosta for the Western District of Texas, with assistance from HRSP Historian/Latin America Specialist Joanna Crandall.

The Justice Department thanks its Guatemalan law enforcement partners, who were instrumental in arresting Miranda-Orozco, and the Guatemalan Attorney General’s Office and Anti-Human Smuggling Unit for making the extradition possible.

This case was supported and prosecuted by JTFA, the U.S. Department of Justice’s lead effort in combating human smuggling and trafficking committed by cartels and Transnational Criminal Organizations throughout the Americas. In partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), JTFA investigates and prosecutes the most prolific and dangerous human smuggling and trafficking networks that impact public safety and border security. Led by the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and supported by other Criminal Division components, JTFA has dedicated prosecutors from U.S. Attorneys’ Offices along the Southwest border, Southern Florida, Northern New York, and Vermont. JTFA partners with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices throughout the country and supports high-priority cases in any district. All JTFA cases rely on substantial law enforcement resources from DHS components, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, HSI, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Border Patrol, and the Office of Field Operations. JTFA also partners with FBI and other law enforcement agencies. To date, JTFA’s work has resulted in more than 486 domestic and international arrests of leaders, organizers, and significant facilitators of alien smuggling and trafficking; more than 447 U.S. convictions; and more than 374 significant jail sentences imposed and forfeitures of substantial assets.