The Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched the National Fraud Detection Center (NFDC) as a prosecutor-led, multi-agency data analytics team designed to find and stop fraud in federal programs.
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Just the News reports that the creation of the NFDC follows President Donald Trump naming Vice President JD Vance as his “fraud czar” in April, and tapping him to lead a task force that has uncovered more than $230 billion in defrauded public funds since its start.
According to a DOJ press release, the center is designed to investigate the most harmful actors defrauding federal government programs, including illicit actors overseas and those operating fraud schemes across federal programs.
The NFDC will bring together law enforcement agencies and analytical capabilities to generate criminal leads to drive more impactful prosecutions and enhance fraud-fighting results for the American people.
“The creation of the NFDC marks a decisive shift in how the federal… pic.twitter.com/z0JQUp81np
— National Fraud Enforcement Division (@DOJFraudDiv) August 24, 2026
The team will include people from the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, IRS Criminal Investigation, FinCEN, the Treasury Department and inspectors general from 12 agencies.
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In Monday’s press release, Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division said, “The creation of the NFDC marks a decisive shift in how the federal government detects and investigates complex fraud.”
McDonald stated:
By breaking down institutional silos, embedding analysts from across the IG community, and leveraging shared technology, the NFDC is actively closing the window of opportunity for bad actors who seek to exploit taxpayer dollars. Today’s announcement sends a clear message: if you defraud federal programs, we have the tools and the law enforcement partners to find you.
Key goals of the NFDC include proactive tracking by searching billing and financial files across federal agencies, generating fast leads by quickly creating cases for investigators and trial lawyers, and connecting local, state, and federal law enforcement.
According to NPR, primary targets of the NFDC include healthcare and medical billing fraud, tax evasion and tax credit schemes, stolen federal benefit money, and misuse of public taxpayer dollars.
The NFDC solves for a lack of cross-program visibility that has long hindered efforts to deter fraud on taxpayer-funded programs and has enabled some fraud actors to further perpetuate schemes across multiple taxpayer-funded programs without detection, according to the DOJ.
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