Source: United States Navy
The Military Sealift Command (MSC) submarine tender USS Frank Cable (AS 40) was announced as a recipient of the fiscal year 2025 Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Afloat Safety Award. The selectees for this award are recognized for significant contributions to Navy safety and occupational health.
Source: United States Airforce
Airmen from the 120th Airlift Wing conducted a solemn C-130H transport mission April 15, bringing the remains of U.S. Army Pvt. Harry David Bordner back to Montana, where he will be laid to rest in his hometown of Butte.
Source: United States Navy
SAN DIEGO (April 15, 2026) — As NASA’s Artemis II crew returned to Earth following their historic mission around the moon, a team of Navy Medicine professionals stood ready in the Pacific Ocean to receive them—prepared for anything from a routine recovery to a life-threatening emergency
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – On April 14, 2026, José Julio Rodríguez-Cumba, a.k.a. “Chambi/Chembi/Josué/Chambo/Patrón,” pleaded guilty to running a continuing criminal enterprise. Rodríguez-Cumba was charged by way of information. The Information charged the defendant with engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise from 2011 through May 2024. Rodríguez-Cumba was arrested in the District of Puerto Rico on October 4, 2021. When sentenced, he will face a mandatory minimum term of 20 years in prison and up to life in prison.
Source: United States Department of Justice
The Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division announced the following actions from across the country to hold individuals accountable for schemes that attempted or succeeded in defrauding the American taxpayers out of over $340 million.
“The National Fraud Enforcement Division is committed to prosecuting anyone who steals from American taxpayers. Over the past seven days the Department of Justice has taken enforcement action in fraud schemes totaling over $340 million, with loss or intended loss amounts in individual cases ranging from $54,000 to over $100 million. No matter the amount, we are steadfast in our effort to eliminate fraud,” said Colin McDonald, Assistant Attorney General for the National Fraud Enforcement Division.
Five people were arrested yesterday in Kentucky, Indiana, and Colorado on federal charges out of the Western District of Kentucky for their role in a scheme to fraudulently obtain approximately $1.6 million in COVID-19 relief funds. The indictment charges two individuals—Kaelynn Greene, 31, and Camden Newton, 32—with wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering, all related to fraudulently obtaining COVID-19 financial assistance program funds. The indictment also charges Betty Walker a/k/a Betty Bailey, 39, Breanna Patterson, 32, and Jordan Greene, 34, with conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Thursday, April 16
A former teacher pleaded guilty in federal court in San Diego admitting that she conspired with others to launder millions of dollars of health care fraud proceeds and paid $3.7 million in unlawful kickbacks. In total, Valenzuela and her co-conspirators billed Medicare nearly $51 million and were paid approximately $20 million, ultimately laundering at least $14 million dollars of Medicare proceeds
A federal grand jury in the District of Maryland jury indicted (link) a former Social Security Administration (SSA) employee in connection with a social security disability theft scheme. Through the scheme, Corbett received $116,537.62 in SSI disability payments.
Wednesday, April 15
In St. Louis, Missouri a chiropractor who committed healthcare fraud and issued fraudulent prescriptions for powerful pain medication (including 94,971 oxycodone pills) and other drugs with no legitimate medical purpose was sentenced to more than eight years in prison and ordered to repay $4.7 million to Medicaid, Medicare and Tricare.
A Seaside, Oregon, woman was sentenced to 28 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $581,283 in restitution for submitting fraudulent pandemic unemployment applications, falsely claiming over two dozen employees, and causing the government to pay her over half a million dollars in benefits.
In Arizona, Leslie Victor Gentry, a Peoria man pleaded guilty to submitting 14 false Form 941 tax returns claiming false COVID-related tax credits based on fictitious wages paid to fictitious employees. Through the false filings, Gentry fraudulently sought and received more than $1.8 million.
On Wednesday, a New Mexico man was sentenced to 41 months in prison for submitting 21 fraudulent unemployment insurance applications using stolen identities during the pandemic. As a result of his fraudulent activities, he received more than $177,000. https://www.justice.gov/usao-nm/pr/belen-man-sentenced-unemployment-fraud-scheme
In Alabama, a Pennsylvania woman was sentenced to nearly 14 years in prison for her role in a $2 million tax fraud scheme.
An Orlando, Florida man was sentenced to over six years in federal prison for bank fraud and aggravated identity theft involving pandemic unemployment assistance. The court also ordered him to forfeit $549,375.50 in proceeds from his bank fraud scheme.
Tuesday, April 14
A Florida nursing assistant was sentenced to nine years in prison and two years of supervised release for his role in an $11.4 million health care fraud and wire fraud conspiracy in which hundreds of Medicare beneficiaries were sent thousands of orthotic braces they did not need.
An illegal alien from Mexico residing in Houston has admitted to theft of government funds and aggravated identity theft. Using a stolen identity, she submitted immigration petitions on behalf of family members and obtained disability and Medicare benefits, receiving more than $278,000 in benefits from 2013 through February 2026.
Monday, April 13
A Detroit resident pleaded guilty for his role in an extensive unemployment insurance and Paycheck Protection Program fraud scheme, involving $1.9 million in losses.
A Naples, Florida, tax preparer pleaded guilty to defrauding the IRS of more than $65,000
Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania, man was sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $352,155 for misappropriating covid relief funds and wire fraud related charges.
Friday, April 10
A Slidell, Louisiana, man was sentenced for conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud in connection with a scheme to bill Medicare for medically unnecessary cancer genetic tests. This scheme resulted in over $6.6 million in false and fraudulent claims submitted to Medicare.
Federal law enforcement arrested West Bloomfield, Michigan resident who is charged by complaint with wire fraud and money laundering for allegedly defrauding financial institutions and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), by applying for more than $5 million in loans across six applications submitted to Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)
A federal judge sentenced a Robeson County, North Carolina woman, to 10 months in prison for her role in submitting a false application to the Small Business Administration’s to receive a $150,000 Economic Injury Disaster Loan.
Thursday, April 9
A Minneapolis man was sentenced to 43 months in prison for his role in a $250 million fraud scheme that exploited a federally funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Two more defendants—Suleman Yusuf Mohamed and his brother Gandi Yusuf Mohamed—have pleaded guilty for their roles in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme. The conspirators received over $10 million meant to feed children.
A Columbia, South Carolina woman pleaded guilty to theft of public money by collecting pension benefits of a dead relative that she was not entitled to collect. The investigation determined that she collected $54,450 in pension payments after the death of her relative.
A Lynn, Massachusetts man pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston to receiving stolen Social Security benefits and making false statements. He received approximately $63,959 in stolen Social Security benefits from June 2019 through June 2025 that were intended for a beneficiary that had died.
A Florida Certified Public Accountant pleaded guilty to evading payment of more than $2.2 million of income tax liabilities.
An Iowa farmer was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for cheating federal taxpayers out of more than $1.7 Million.
On April 7, the Department of Justice announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division. The core mission of the Fraud Division is to zealously investigate and prosecute those who steal or fraudulently misuse taxpayer dollars. Department of Justice efforts to combat fraud support 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
The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission (Agencies) hereby extend the period for receiving public comments on their inquiry for consideration of guidance on collaborations among competitors, that was announced on Feb. 23, 2026.
The Agencies are extending the comment period deadline from April 24, 2026 to May 21, 2026 to give all stakeholders more time to provide fulsome input on the development of up-to-date guidance to the business community, building on the previous 2000 Antitrust Guidelines for Collaborations Among Competitors.
Interested parties, including attorneys, economists, academics, consumer groups, industry stakeholders or other members of the public, may now submit public comments no longer than 18 pages to Regulations.gov until May 21, 2026. The information submitted will be used by the Agencies to consider updated guidance.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
KELIJAH RICHARDSON, also known as “KeKe,” “Keek,” and “Lijh,” 28, and ANIBAL RIVERA, also known as “Go,” “Greenlight Go,” and “greenlightgo.1,” 27, both of Bridgeport, have been charged by indictment with robbing a jewelry store in Clinton earlier this year.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
BOSTON – A Dominican national who unlawfully resided in Dorchester has been indicted by a federal grand jury for illegally reentering the United States after having been deported on three separate occasions. The defendant has previously been convicted of drug trafficking, aggravated identity theft and wire fraud dating as far back as 1997.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Earlier today in federal court in Brooklyn, a ten-count indictment was unsealed charging Puthugramam “Harish” Chidambaran, the founder and former Chief Executive Officer of iLearningEngines, Inc. (iLearning), and Sayyed Farhan Ali “Farhan” Naqvi, iLearning’s former Chief Financial Officer, with running a continuing financial crimes enterprise, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and wire fraud. The charges arise from the defendants’ years-long scheme to defraud retail and institutional investors in iLearning, a technology company that claimed to provide artificial intelligence (AI)-driven business automation solutions, and to obtain financing for iLearning through materially false and misleading statements about the company’s financial performance. Chidambaran was arrested this morning in Potomac, Maryland, and will appear this afternoon in federal court in the District of Maryland. Naqvi was arrested this morning in San Jose, California, and will appear this afternoon in federal court in the Northern District of California. Both defendants will appear in federal court in the Eastern District of New York at a later date.
Source: United States Army
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VICENZA, Italy – A three-person tiger team launched in February 2025 has helped transform U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) into the Army’s premier battle lab in Africa. The team now helps the command lead by transforming operational data into fast, actionable decisions.
The team integrates machine learning to fuse information from external sources. This platform replaces fragmented workflows with automated decision support for commanders, enhancing real-time situational awareness.
The push for this system began after an extended joint task force operation spanning multiple geographic combatant commands. A subsequent after-action review revealed severe data silos and a fractured information environment across the staff.
“Staff relied on scattered PowerPoints and inconsistent network drives, causing widespread confusion,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Kevin Ong, the SETAF-AF influence branch chief. “We lacked a central location for all parties to determine the actual ground truth.”
In response, SETAF-AF’s G3 operations directorate tasked Ong to lead a “tiger team.” Starting with three staff members, a limited budget and no dedicated engineering support, they studied data-mature commands like U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and U.S. Central Command. The team borrowed use cases and adapted strategic-level tools to fit operational requirements.
“It felt like being a substitute teacher,” Ong said. “You read the lesson a day ahead and then try to teach the rest of the staff the next day.”
Over the past year, the team built or tailored approximately a dozen tools to make users more efficient. For example, the “Scribe” tool uses artificial intelligence to transcribe meetings, identify speakers and generate action items for staff officers.
SETAF-AF Smart Search enables staff members to query command-specific classified documents without exposing sensitive data to external AI models. Its success has prompted other commands to develop their own tailored versions.
A tailored decision support matrix gives a commander a structured, data-driven framework to evaluate operational courses of action using live feeds. Rather than sifting through disconnected reports, that commander sees competing options ranked side by side against near real-time data, enabling faster, more confident decisions.
This platform dismantles historical information silos and automates manual analytical processes. Its tools slash the time required for administrative tasks and compresses workflows that once took trained staff members days to complete into minutes.
Across every tool, Ong’s team prioritizes machine-human teaming, ensuring that automation focuses on data aggregation and pattern recognition, while the user reviews, interprets and decides.
“We created tools that flag important activity in near real time, cutting analyst time from hours to minutes,” Ong said. “The commander gets intelligence while it is still actionable.”
The team’s solutions have reached far beyond SETAF-AF, and U.S. Africa Command has since explored integrating Scribe into key meetings across its staff.
Ong’s team also acts as a force multiplier for subordinate units. When a unit under U.S. Army Europe and Africa identified a meeting-transcription requirement, the SETAF-AF tiger team built and delivered the capability. According to Ong, fulfilling this capability request saved the unit over 40 hours of internal development time.
“Our mission requires us to stay adaptable,” Ong said. “Handling multiple operations at once forces us to find smarter ways to work.”
By December 2025, internal demand outpaced the original mandate of the tiger team. The team transitioned into a permanent subordinate component of the newly established Advanced Capabilities Directorate, where it was rebranded as the Operations Data Division. The overall directorate serves as the command’s front door for the innovation ecosystem, translating senior-leader vision into battlefield-ready capabilities through technical scouting and coordination with industry and academia.
Today, the Operational Data Division comprises five people organized into two sections: operations research and systems analysis officers who verify and structure incoming data, and platform builders who develop applications. To extend its reach, the team supports dedicated platform builders within each staff section across the command, creating a distributed network that ensures continuity and operational ownership.
During the upcoming African Lion 26 exercise, the team will use the system to build shared situational awareness with over 40 partners and allies. This massive multinational effort validates the sensor-to-shooter loop, features multilanguage reporting generation and reinforces interoperability across Africa.
“The idea is to have all our partners and allies in one room looking at the same sheet of music,” Ong said.
For a command managing missions from crisis response to multinational exercises, the Advanced Capabilities Directorate proves the value of bottom-up innovation.
Related Stories
SETAF-AF stands up Advanced Capabilities Directorate to drive innovation, data, decision dominance | Jan. 15, 2026
Inside how SETAF-AF will turn innovation into capability during African Lion 26 | Feb. 19, 2026
SETAF-AF showcases cutting-edge solutions at African Land Forces Summit 2026 | April 2, 2026
About African Lion
African Lion 2026 is U.S. Africa Command’s largest annual joint exercise, designed to strengthen collective security capabilities of the U.S., African nations and global allies. Co-led by U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) from April 20 to May 8, 2026, and hosted in Ghana, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia, AL26 involves over 5,600 personnel from more than 40 nations, using innovation to drive partner-led regional security.
African Lion content can be found on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS).
About SETAF-AF
U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) prepares Army forces, executes crisis response, enables strategic competition and strengthens partners to achieve U.S. Army Europe and Africa and U.S. Africa Command campaign objectives.
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