It Takes a Thief to Catch a Thief

In the movies and on TV, whether you’re watching in the theater or at home through one of your many streaming services, you’ll notice a common plot twist in many crime shows. Frustrated by their inability to solve a case, detectives or detective chief inspectors will seek advice from another criminal who may have insights into the motive, means or opportunity of the person or persons they’re trying to catch.

Talk to a jewel thief to catch a jewel thief. Talk to a serial killer to catch a serial killer. The criminal knows how other criminals think, and sharing those insights will help law enforcement apprehend the perps.

In the movie The Silence of the Lambs, serial killer Hannibal Lector helps FBI agent Clarice Starling catch another serial killer, nicknamed Buffalo Bill, by suggesting Buffalo Bill’s motive: “He covets.”

That plot twist came to mind when I read through the U.S. Justice Department’s latest press release and data on False Claims Act settlements and judgments. It’s the annual Justice Department release and data I expected a year ago, like I wrote about in this blog post: “Saying Goodbye to Things in Healthcare We May Never Know Again.” But it was better late than never.

Turns out, this Justice Department put together by the convicted felon who occupies the White House is doing a bang-up job fighting fraud committed against the U.S. government, especially in healthcare. Here are the stats from federal fiscal year 2025, which ended Sept. 30, 2025:

• Total False Claims Act settlements and judgments totaled nearly $6.9 billion. That’s more than double the $3.1 billion collected by the Justice Department in fiscal 2024 and the highest since fiscal 2021, when the value of those settlements and judgments hit $5.7 billion.
• Total False Claims Act settlements and judgments against HHS and the healthcare agencies it oversees like Medicare and Medicaid totaled more than $5.7 billion in fiscal 2025, or more than tripled the $1.8 billion in settlements and judgments the previous fiscal year. The $5.7 billion in healthcare was the highest annual total since 2021, when the value of those settlements and judgments was about $5.1 billion.

“Healthcare fraud remained a leading source of False Claims Act settlements and judgments,” the Justice Department said.

To wit, $5.7 billion in healthcare made up nearly 83% of the $6.9 billion total last fiscal year.

One of Donald Trump’s former personal criminal defense attorneys is Todd Blanche. Blanche is now Deputy Attorney General of the United States. He’s also the Justice Department official quoted in the agency’s better-late-than-never press release on the False Claims Act settlements and judgments.

With Trump in the White House, Blanche at the Justice Department and Rick Scott, the former chairman and CEO of Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation, in the Senate, if you’re committing healthcare fraud, you don’t stand a chance.

To learn more about this topic, please read:

• “Five Things I Should Have Asked Rick Scott”
• “Justice Department Sleeping at the Healthcare Fraud Wheel”
• “Less Healthcare Fraud or Less Healthcare Fraud Detection?”
• “Fighting Fraud Instead of Election Results”
• “Want to Stop the Steal? Start with Healthcare Fraud”
• “Fun with Fraud Numbers”