455 Fraudsters Charged, $6.5 Billion Exposed

On Tuesday, the Justice Department announced the 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown, calling it the largest operation of its kind. Authorities charged 455 people in 45 states and territories, including 90 doctors, nurses, and other licensed professionals, for submitting over $6.5 billion in false Medicare and Medicaid claims. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche described it as the biggest government effort ever against health care fraud in the United States.

Agents seized $182 million in cash, luxury cars, and jewelry. Even before these raids, CMS had already suspended 1,079 providers and removed billing privileges from another 1,403, stopping payments before they went out. Some suspects fled before they could be arrested. Emylee Thai, accused in a $90 million genetic testing scam, cut off her ankle monitor and flew to Vietnam on a private jet with a fake passport. Khalid Satary, wanted for a $547 million version of the same scheme, posted bond and disappeared into the United Arab Emirates. Both were added to the FBI’s Most Wanted Fraudsters list this week.

Nick has visited California hospices that billed the government for patients who were not dying, and sometimes for people who were not even patients. One case charged this week details how a company allegedly paid kickbacks of about 40 percent to push amniotic wound grafts onto hospice patients, applying them to wounds that did not need treatment and leaving out the doctors actually caring for those patients.

This is the same fraud that many confident people swore did not exist. When Nick knocked on the doors of empty daycares in Minnesota, Democrats went after his character for simply pointing a camera at the problem. And the result? The Stop Nick Shirley Act. Death threats. Threatened on NYC sidewalks.

For a year, the main response to this work was that it was either fake or too minor to matter, with some even calling it “racism.” But 455 charges and $6.5 billion in fraud prove otherwise. And these numbers are likely just a fraction of the real total, which is much higher.

We couldn’t do this without your support. Investigations, travel, and our team on the ground all exist because of you. We don’t take that for granted.

If you want to support our work, shop the Anti Fraud Taxpayer Club collection (& more). Every purchase directly fuels Nick Shirley’s future investigations.

If you’d like to support our mission for exposing fraud across the country, consider becoming a Founding Member today!

As a Founding Member, you’ll receive the core Anti Fraud Club articles, along with these benefits:

We truly appreciate your support and commitment to our mission.

Thank you.

Nick has returned to Canal Street. In a video posted Monday, he visits the well-known stretch in Lower Manhattan where illegal scammers line the sidewalks selling fake Gucci, Chanel, and imitation watches. This isn’t his first time here. After his earlier report last year, ICE arrested several sellers he filmed, but the new footage shows many of them back in the same places, doing business as usual.

The counterfeit trade is more than just a part of New York tourism. It is a multibillion-dollar criminal business that avoids taxes, launders money, and has long been linked to organized groups that use the profits for other crimes. Canal Street has been the most visible place for this in the U.S. for decades, and even after crackdowns, the scammers usually return within days.

Not everyone is happy about the reporting. Nick says that during a previous visit, a group of vendors confronted him and his crew. One man grabbed a crew member’s phone and threatened to break it, while another made an obscene gesture at the camera. When Nick returned this week, a seller told him filming on the sidewalk was illegal, so Nick asked if the man knew about the First Amendment (spoiler alert, he didn’t).

Nick points out at least one seller who was picked up by federal agents after the earlier report but is already back on the street, doing none other than selling drugs. Nick confronted him, to which he claimed he owned a food business and wasn’t selling drugs. Awkward enough for him, Nick had taken a picture earlier showing the same individual reaching into a jar of weed.

Nick organized a “Clean Up Canal Street” rally in the neighborhood in late May (alongside Joe Sweeenie). Multiple days leading to the event, the New York City Police Department cleaned up Canal Street. Although that didn’t stop Nick and Sweeenie to organize a successful event, painting over illegal graffiti. It makes you realize, the city obviously knows about Canal street and has the resources to clean it day after day, but chooses not to. Wild.

Do you think the New York City government will clean up Canal Street and remove the illegal scammers? Let us know by replying to this email!

The California bill dubbed the “Stop Nick Shirley Act” is still moving. On Tuesday, AB 2624 advanced out of the state Senate Judiciary Committee, clearing another step on its way through the Senate. It already passed the Assembly 57-19 in May. A full Senate vote would send it to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk.

To recap, the bill was written by Assemblymember Mia Bonta, who is married to Attorney General Rob Bonta. It would expand California’s Safe At Home privacy program to cover people working for immigrant service organizations and would ban posting their images or information online if the goal is to incite violence. Bonta says this will protect workers from doxxing and threats. Critics, including Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, argue the bill’s language is so broad that it could remove investigative footage from the internet and shield taxpayer-funded organizations from oversight. Civil penalties would start at $4,000 for posting the wrong image.

In the same week the bill moved forward, the Department of Justice charged 10 people in Southern California with hospice and prescription fraud. Some of them billed Medicare for patients who were not dying or had already passed away. Another person is accused of making $270 million in fake Medi-Cal drug claims. This month, California’s health department also declared a “factual emergency” in hospice oversight.

Now, Assemblymember David Tangipa says the state should apologize to Nick instead of passing a bill, arguing that the hospice investigation confirmed Nick’s reporting was accurate.

What are your thoughts on the Stop Nick Shirley Act? Let us know!