The U.S. Justice Department announced “unprecedented fraud enforcement”  on Thursday, citing new federal partnerships with seven southern states aimed at combating and eliminating fraud.The partnerships include the FBI, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and other federal agencies, as well as state and federal attorneys in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. These states have entered into data-sharing agreements with the federal government, allowing the Fraud Division to access corporate registration and public benefits data, which it will use to more efficiently detect fraud.In an accompanying press conference, Colin McDonald, the assistant attorney general for the National Fraud Enforcement Division, stressed the importance of the partnership in eliminating fraud.“These partnerships are critical to solving our nationwide fraud epidemic. Fraudsters thrive on government agencies not partnering, not sharing data, not sharing intelligence. The fraud fighting team assembled here today is resolved to work together to break those cycles and bring the fraudsters out into the light. When federal prosecutors work with state agencies to share leads, data and strategy, the American people win......“And I can't overemphasize that these are not victimless crimes. Every fraud case prevents bread from going to the table of a needy family or health care from going to the elderly or a child from receiving the education that they deserve.” The press release that announced the partnership also highlighted many recent successes of federal enforcement actions against individuals responsible for more than $360 million in fraud across the seven southern states.The most egregious example of such fraud comes from the New Orleans-based Eastern District of Louisiana, where co-conspirators John M. Spivey and Jamie McNamara were recently sentenced for committing Medicare fraud. The two submitted $174 million in fraudulent claims for the performance of medically unnecessary cancer and cardiovascular genetic testing in laboratories they owned. Other examples include Michael Shine of Birmingham, Alabama, who has been charged with filing false tax records on behalf of clients. According to research by Web Stat’s News Room, he allegedly claimed residential energy credits for geothermal heat pumps that investigators have concluded do not exist. According to that article, he allegedly claimed the credit on 90% of the tax returns he filed as a tax professional between 2022 and 2026, compared to the Alabama state average of 2.2% for that credit. In total, he is accused of fraudulently claiming $70 million from the IRS.In a South Florida case, four co-conspirators, including two foreign nationals and one with a deportation order, sold SNAP benefits for cash at a Kwik Stop convenience store. According to reporting from the South Florida Sun Sentinel, businesses owned by the four individuals allegedly charged SNAP for food that recipients did not actually buy, provided kickbacks to the recipients, and pocketed the difference. In total, they allegedly caused nearly $20 million in fraudulent EBT transactions.In a less lucrative North Carolina case, two illegal-alien Romanian brothers pled guilty to a fraud scheme that caused nearly $766,000 in loss. The press release includes a remark on the scheme’s effect on a victim: “A victim reported that she was shopping with her family on their monthly grocery run for approximately $700 of SNAP-eligible items. Because the defendants had used her SNAP benefits, the transaction was denied, and the victim was unable to purchase food or school supplies for her family.”