DOJ’s New Fraud Division Lays Out Its Enforcement Priorities: What Companies Need to Know

The useful part

McDonald issued a memo entitled The Fraud Division's Enforcement Priorities to all personnel of the Department of Justice's (DOJ) new National Fraud Enforcement Division. As the title suggests, the memo sets out the division's enforcement priorities. While the memo doesn't break new ground, it highlights further the industries and areas where companies should expect the most enforcement scrutiny.

How it works

• It's organized into specialized sections covering healthcare fraud, public trust/financial integrity, tax, global trade, corporate enforcement, and more, backed by asset recovery, data science, and...
• More resources mean more investigations, opened faster, with better data analytics behind them.
• National Fraud Enforcement Division The National Fraud Enforcement Division was created earlier this year and is scaling quickly.
• According to the memo, headcount is set to hit roughly 500 attorneys and staff by August 24, 2026, with continued growth planned over the next two years.
• The memo's stated design goal for the division is to be "lean, flat, and agile" — fewer bureaucratic layers between prosecutors and charging decisions.

What to take from it

While there have been many task forces, cross-agency initiatives, and partnerships in the past, the division still represents a significant investment of resources. If your organization touches federal contracts or federally funded programs, expect to be on DOJ's radar.</...

Details worth keeping

On August 13, 2026, Assistant Attorney General Colin M. The memo describes five areas prioritized for fraud enforcement: 1. Public trust and financial integrity Government procurement fraud (bid rigging, defective pricing, self-dealing, bribery) and benefit/grant program fraud (student loans, veterans' benefits, disaster relief, small business programs) are explicit priorities.