Health Care Fraud, Public Corruption In Focus In First Six Months Of U.S. Attorney's Service In Northern District Of Illinois

Health care fraud, public corruption and other types of fraud have emerged as apparent top white collar enforcement priorities of the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois under the leadership of U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros. Boutros, who took office in April 2025, came to the role from private practice, most recently serving as co-chair of Shook's Government Investigations and White Collar Practice. He previously served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney from 2008 to 2015, during which he investigated and prosecuted federal offenses ranging from drug trafficking and violent crime to white collar crimes and international trade, customs, and anti-dumping laws. If Boutros' first six months in office are representative of his plans for the rest of his tenure, companies should expect heightened scrutiny and work to ensure their compliance programs are up to date.

Emphasis on Health Care Fraud Prosecutions

Just a few months after Boutros's appointment, on June 10, 2025, health care fraud came to the forefront at the sentencing of a suburban Chicago physician who, after being indicted under prior acting U.S. Attorney Morris Pascal, pleaded guilty to submitting fraudulent claims to Medicaid and numerous other insurers for procedures and services that were not medically necessary. In announcing the 10-year prison sentence and $15 million in restitution, Boutros emphasized his office's commitment to prosecuting health care fraud, stating that "[w]hen physicians submit fraudulent claims to federal health care programs, they divert taxpayer-funded resources away from those who truly need them."

Not long after this, on July 1, 13 defendants were charged with health care fraud worth more than $2 billion in the Northern District of Illinois as part of the largest national health care fraud enforcement action in Department of Justice history. Nationwide, more than 320 defendants were charged for allegedly participating in various health care fraud schemes involving more than $14.6 billion in intended losses. The fraud schemes charged in the Northern District allegedly caused the Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration, Medicare, and other insurers to pay more than $865 million in fraudulent reimbursements.

Then, in August 2025, Boutros announced the Healthcare Fraud Section, a new section within the office's Criminal Division dedicated to the prosecution of healthcare fraud. The Healthcare Fraud Section will be tasked with prosecuting defendants in all types of health care fraud, such as false and fraudulent claims submitted by transnational criminal organizations to America's health insurance programs; upcoding and unbundling schemes; scams by providers and individuals against Medicare and Medicaid; fraudulent billing; and illegal kickbacks, among many other health care-related frauds and schemes. In his announcement, Boutros reiterated his previous statements that "[e]very year, healthcare fraud causes billions of dollars in losses to the federal government and private insurers and siphons off hard-earned tax dollars meant to provide care for people in need," and that since he became U.S. Attorney, his office had charged nearly $2 billion. He expressed the hope that the Healthcare Fraud Section would "bring greater focus, efficiency, and impact to our efforts in this important program area, which often involves the exploitation of patients through unnecessary and/or unsafe medical tests and procedures."

The Healthcare Fraud Section returned its first indictment just a few months later, in September 2025. A suburban Chicago man was indicted for allegedly submitting more than $17.3 million in fraudulent claims to a private insurer through fictitious entities he claimed provided early intervention services to children, when in fact no therapy services were actually provided.

With the many public statements highlighting the importance of health care fraud prosecutions and the tangible evidence of the prosecutions already brought during Boutros's tenure, this area seems certain to remain a focus for investigations and charges in the Northern District of Illinois.

Public Corruption

Boutros has also made clear that public corruption charges will continue to be a priority for his office, following the lead of his predecessors in the role, former U.S. Attorney John Lausch Jr. and former Acting U.S. Attorney Morris Pasqual. In particular, when former Illinois Speaker of the House Michael J. Madigan was sentenced in June 2025, Boutros stated that "[c]orruption at the highest level of the state legislature tears at the fabric of a vital governing body," and that "[o]ur Office and our partners remain steadfast in our commitment to vigorously prosecute corruption at all levels of government and hold public officials accountable for violating the public trust." Madigan was sentenced to seven and a half years in federal prison for conspiring with others to cause the utility company Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) to make monetary payments to his associates as a reward for their loyalty to Madigan, in return for performing little or no legitimate work for the business. The true nature of the payments was to influence and reward Madigan in connection with specific legislation ComEd sought in the Illinois General Assembly. Two former ComEd executives and a consultant were also sentenced in relation to this conspiracy in July 2025, along with hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

COVID Relief Fraud

Fraud related to another crisis—the COVID-19 pandemic—has also been a focus for recent prosecutions in the Northern District. Indeed, there have been dozens of these prosecutions. As just one example, in August 2025, a federal grand jury indicted four individuals for allegedly fraudulently obtaining millions of dollars in small business loans under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. The indictment charged wire fraud and money laundering, alleging that the defendants submitted numerous fraudulent applications on behalf of themselves and business entities purportedly owned by some of the defendants, containing materially false statements and misrepresentations about the defendants' companies, including the number of purported employees, payroll and revenue amounts, and other expenses. Similarly, another 13 individuals were indicted on wire fraud charges in July 2025 for allegedly fraudulently obtaining millions of dollars in small business loans and other benefits under the same act in a series of prosecutions. And a July 3 plea to wire fraud charges from a California businessman involved more than $14 million in fraudulent loans under the COVID-era Paycheck Protection Program. Based on this busy docket, it seems likely there will be additional COVID relief fraud prosecutions to come in the future.

Other Fraud

The Northern District has also brought a number of other types of fraud prosecutions under Boutros's tenure.

For example, in May 2025, a suburban Chicago businessman was indicted on wire fraud and money laundering charges for allegedly swindling investors in his purported refining business out of at least $3.6 million. The businessman is alleged to have fraudulently obtained funds from multiple investors by falsely representing that they would receive guaranteed annualized returns on their investments of 10 to 50% and that, in the event the company defaulted in making payments to investors, he would personally repay the full amount of their investments and their returns. In support of his fraudulent representations, the defendant allegedly provided investors with false documents that made it appear his company was financially sound and able to meet its financial commitments. In reality, the indictment stated, investor funds were put to personal use.

Similarly, also in May 2025, a Chicago man was charged with wire fraud in a criminal information for fraudulently obtained funds from an investor in a Chicago suburb. He allegedly did so by misrepresenting the intended use of the investment and falsely boasting of the investment's performance and value. The indictment also alleges that he falsely told the victim that he would invest the money on the victim's behalf, even though he knew some of the money would be used for his personal benefit, including paying utility and credit card bills, the information stated. He allegedly concealed his misappropriation by creating bogus account statements and tax forms that falsely represented the victim's investment was greater than its actual value.

In the same vein, an August 2025 indictment charged a foreign national who recently resided in the Chicago area with seven counts of wire fraud, four counts of tax evasion, and four counts of failing to file income taxes. He allegedly fraudulently obtained approximately $2.45 million from an individual by falsely representing that he would invest the money in a shipping container business and a marijuana growing operation, but instead made personal purchases with the money.

There have been numerous other fraud prosecutions over the last six months, and this area is likely to remain as popular for enforcement as it has ever been.

Conclusion

White collar criminal cases often take years to investigate and prosecute, and one should be careful about trying to draw too many conclusions from Boutros' relatively short tenure thus far. But as the cases discussed above show, Boutros has so far vigorously pursued enforcement in a variety of areas, perhaps most notably health care and fraud.

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