DOJ’s National Fraud Enforcement Division Announces Enforcement Priorities With Five Focus Areas

Takeaways

• • On August 13, 2026, Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald issued a memorandum to all personnel of the DOJ National Fraud Enforcement Division (the “NFED”), titled The Fraud Division’s Enforcement Priorities (the “Memorandum”). The Memorandum announced NFED’s plans for growth and its enforcement in five focus areas to combat certain types of fraud in the United States.
  • On the heels of the Memorandum, the DOJ subsequently amended a rule which formally established the NFED and shifted tax and health care fraud cases, among others, to NFED (the “Rule”), effective August 24, 2026.
  • Read together, the Memorandum and the Rule indicate significant changes to federal fraud enforcement, and companies or individuals operating in the five focus areas below should review and update their compliance programs to align with NFED’s priority areas.

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Background

The NFED’s origins begin with the Memorandum for the Department of Justice (the “Blanche Memo”) issued on April 7, 2026, from then-Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. The Blanche Memo created the NFED and stated that its mission will be to “zealously investigate and prosecute those who steal or fraudulently misuse taxpayer dollars.” To accomplish this purpose, the DOJ consolidated and moved operational control of the following from the Criminal Division (the “CRM”) to the NFED: (1) the Tax Section, (2) the Health Care Fraud Unit, and (3) the Market, Government, and Consumer Fraud Unit.

Subsequently, on August 13, 2026, the Memorandum was published, reaffirming the DOJ’s intent to target fraud in the United States. The Memorandum estimated the federal government loses between $233 billion and $521 billion per year to fraud. To combat fraud in the United States, the Memorandum outlined a two-prong framework: (1) leveraging existing resources to promote attorney growth and creating new partnerships, and (2) focusing on five priority areas of fraud impacting Americans, including vulnerable populations like children, the elderly, and the disabled.

The Five Focus Areas of Enforcement

The Memorandum stated the NFED will prioritize its work around the following five focus areas of enforcement:

A. Public Trust and Financial Integrity

NFED will prioritize targeting “government procurement fraud [as] a critical priority” along with contracting fraud schemes, which include “defective pricing, bid rigging, self-dealing, bribery, product substitution, and billing frauds.” Further, NFED will also investigate government programs that are exploited, including student loans, child care, veterans’ benefits, nutritional supplements, and disaster relief to small business programs.

B. Health Care

The Memorandum stated that health care fraud is a major priority for NFED. The Memorandum estimated between 3% to 10% of the expected $7 trillion annual national health care expenditure can be attributed to fraud. As such, NFED will target “exploitative health care fraud schemes [which includes] telemedicine programs, Medicare or Medicaid fraud, controlled substance diversion, home health and hospice schemes, and companies and individuals that deceptively market unsafe products and services.” To accomplish this goal, NFED will “supercharge” the historical Health Care Fraud Strike Force model with additional resources like data analytics support and “best-in-class technology” indicating enforcement utilizing a cross-disciplinary approach.

C. Internal Revenue

Additionally, NFED will prioritize targeting unethical return preparers, including false claims on individual tax returns, those who conceal their income, and otherwise abusive promoters of illegal tax schemes. NFED will utilize its “arsenal of criminal tax tools” in conjunction with “data analytics, financial forensics, and nationwide coordination” in its enforcement approach.

D. Global Trade and Commerce

NFED will also target “illicit transshipment schemes, country-of-origin fraud, the undervaluation of imported goods [and] forced-labor supply chains.” To enforce these cases, NFED will coordinate with the Trade Fraud Task Force (constituting staff from both DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security) with a focus on those cases that systematically threaten national security and the economy through high-impact noncompliance.

E. Corporate Misconduct

Finally, NFED will focus on prosecuting organizations that “frequently engage in fraud and other economic crimes” while simultaneously “rewarding those that voluntarily self-disclose, cooperate, and remediate.” This emphasis on corporate self-disclosure aligns with DOJ’s Corporate Enforcement and Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy (“CEP”) published on March 10, 2026, which stated that CEP will “incentivize companies to voluntarily disclose discovered misconduct, cooperate with [DOJ] investigations, and timely and appropriately remediate the wrongdoing.”

Notably, and unlike the prior focus areas, NFED does not specify areas of corporate enforcement in the Memorandum. Instead, the Memorandum generally states NFED’s “strong pipeline of ongoing corporate matters” and its plans to work in conjunction with DOJ’s Corporate Enforcement Section to: (1) prioritize anti-fraud corporate enforcement, and (2) ensure appropriate resources are committed to combating corporate fraud.

The Rule and the Authority Relocation from the Criminal Division

In tandem with the Memorandum, on August 18, 2026, the DOJ formally established the NFED in its Rule published in the Federal Register. Pursuant to the Rule, effective August 24, 2026, the DOJ granted authority over certain fraud enforcement actions to NFED. The following enforcement functions now vest with the NFED:

• • Criminal proceedings involving criminal frauds except cases assigned to the Antitrust Division;
  • Criminal proceedings arising under the internal revenue laws;
  • Criminal proceedings relating to trade fraud matters;
  • Criminal proceedings involving monies owed to or paid by the United States;
  • Criminal proceedings involving fraud or abuse with respect to health plans; and
  • Criminal proceedings related to health care fraud, controlled substances distribution, and diversion schemes.

Notably, the DOJ reassigned CRM’s authority over fraud enforcement actions related to “tax frauds and fraud with respect to health plans” to the NFED, as set forth above. Further, the Rule revised and stripped CRM’s authority over litigation related to controlled substances, such that “CRM does not have exclusive authority to bring charges” and so that the NFED may bring charges related to controlled substances when authorized.

Next Steps 

Health care fraud is one of five enforcement priorities named in the Memorandum. Further, pursuant to the Rule, NFED has authority to enforce fraud related to health plans and controlled substances distribution and diversion schemes in criminal proceedings. As such, health care companies, including telemedicine providers, home health and hospice providers, and providers with significant Medicare or Medicaid billing, should treat the Memorandum’s stated targets, together with the NFED’s new enforcement pursuant to the Rule, as a roadmap for internal compliance review.

Further, the consolidation of the five focus areas under one organization, NFED, signals potential for national enforcement campaigns and means companies across industries now face one coordinated framework for evaluating self-disclosure decisions. The emphasis on corporate self-disclosure is a recurring theme and echoes the DOJ CEP published in early 2026. In light of these trends, companies and individuals operating in the five focus areas should consider updating and operationalizing their compliance programs to align with NFED’s stated priorities.

Dykema will monitor developments related to NFED and its enforcement activities. For questions or legal advice on how these NFED’s enforcement priorities may affect your business, please contact Dykema as soon as possible.