‘Robust fraud fighting effort’ outlined by DOJ

Good afternoon. My name is Colin McDonald, Assistant Attorney General for the National Fraud Enforcement Division at the Department of Justice. The sad truth confronting the United States is that criminals steal hundreds of billions of dollars every year from the taxpayer. To put this crisis into perspective, more taxpayer dollars go to fraudsters every year than to most federal departments and agencies, including the combined budgets of the Departments of Energy, Justice, and Interior. Hundreds of billions of dollars every single year taken by criminal actors. And there is no end to what the fraudsters will take. No program is too noble or too compassionate for a fraudster. No program is off-limits for a fraudster. they will take from all of us until there is nothing left. Fraud against the American taxpayer is a crisis of the first order. President Trump, Vice President Vance, and Attorney General Blanche have taken this crisis head on, resolved to protect the American taxpayer. Under their leadership, the federal government has launched the most robust, coordinated fraud-fighting effort the country has ever attempted. And those efforts are already bearing fruit for the American people. In the 190 days since Attorney General Blanche created the National Fraud Enforcement Division, the Department of Justice has announced over 1,000 major fraud enforcement actions across the country. Medicaid fraud, SNAP fraud, HUD fraud, Social Security fraud, SBA fraud, and the list goes on and on. We are on the move to protect taxpayer dollars and our taxpayer-funded programs meant to help our elderly, our children, sick, are hungry, and are homeless. Different programs, different schemes, but the same target in all of these cases, the American people. Now in addition to stealing from taxpayer funded programs, fraudsters also target taxpayer dollars by criminally siphoning money from the Internal Revenue Service. Just last month GAO estimated that taxpayers lose up to $304 billion every year due to fraud schemes perpetrated against the IRS. We are actively combating those tax fraud schemes. And today, on the eve of the tax extension filing deadline of October 15th, we are announcing the first ever nationwide tax fraud surge. In the past 45 days, the fraud division's tax section and United States attorney's offices across the country participated in the national tax enforcement surge. The surge of nationwide resources resulted in prosecutorial actions against 76 defendants in 45 days, whose alleged and proven crimes totaled an intended loss of over $490 million. Those 76 prosecutorial actions in 45 days include new charges against 31 defendants whose alleged schemes targeted approximately $350 million in intended loss to the taxpayer. During this surge, we have also achieved two trial victories, dozens of other convictions through guilty pleas, and numerous sentencings of criminal fraudsters. The work completed has been a nationwide effort, with cases from Alaska to Maine to Florida to Minnesota and many states in between. Now, let me be clear about who these cases are about. We are not looking for the person who clicked the wrong button on an online filing form. We are not looking for the family that misread a line on their tax return or the small business owner who inadvertently claimed a deduction but turned out not to qualify. We are looking for people who lied on purpose to take money that they knew did not belong to them. People who intentionally violated a known legal duty. People who invented refunds they were not entitled to. Who stole other people's names and filed returns using them thousands of times over. who built abusive and illegal sham trusts to bury income they knew perfectly well was taxable, who took Social Security and Medicare money out of their employees' paychecks and kept it for themselves. These are not errors. These are criminal schemes built deliberately, run for years, designed to be hard to find, and paid for every single time by the Americans who file taxes honestly and pay what they owe. I will highlight now, before my colleagues take the mic, a few of these matters. One of the bread and butter cases of tax enforcement efforts are return preparer cases. Dirty return preparer crimes are particularly corrosive to public trust because they undermine ordinary American citizens' trust in our tax system. Just this month, as part of our surge in the Eastern District of North Carolina, defendant Nejle Mitchell received a 60-month prison sentence for preparing false returns, claiming fraudulent refunds based on COVID-19 pandemic tax credits. In response to those fraudulent claims, the IRS paid out over $13 million. Mitchell and now five other return preparers who participated in the scheme received well-deserved prison time for their crimes. Alarmingly, these tax fraud schemes also involve non-citizens. Last week, in the District of Kansas, Efantis Mwangi was sentenced to 51 months in prison. Mr. Mwangi is a Kenyan national and businessman who collected Social Security and Medicare taxes from his employees but pocketed the money for himself, paying off loans, buying luxury vehicles, and ultimately depleting the funds that his employees would rely on in their old age. Mr. Mwangi will likely be deported from the United States of America at the conclusion of his 51-month prison sentence. On October 6th, the Fraud Division's tax section brought an indictment in the Northern District of Georgia, charging three individuals with numerous crimes arising out of a $74 million scheme to defraud the IRS. According to the indictment, the men, all Mexican citizens, obtained Mexican IDs of third parties and used them to get IRS filing numbers. They filed fraudulent returns using those identities, and they allegedly received more than 16,000 U.S. Treasury refund checks totaling around 74 million dollars. Stolen identity refund fraud cases must be stopped. We must stand ready to protect our government's revenue sources from bad actors wherever they might live and operate. Finally, the Fraud Division's tax section continues to investigate and prosecute complex tax cases such as abusive promoter schemes in which sophisticated actors intentionally violate a known legal duty. In late September, in the Northern District of Texas, a grand jury returned an indictment against four Texas residents who were charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, among other charges. The defendants allegedly promoted and sold a fraudulent trust scheme that was used to shelter more than $1.5 billion of income, allegedly caused an estimated tax loss to the IRS of more than $200 million, allegedly used the criminally derived property to purchase a Rolls Royce and a yacht. This complex scheme was uncovered through the diligent and relentless work of IRS CI special agents, coupled with the talent and commitment of our trial attorneys, some of whom are in the room here today, and I commend them for their work. These cases are a small sampling of the extraordinary work accomplished on behalf of the American people in the last 45 days by the dedicated public servants in the Fraud Division's Tax Section, U.S. Attorney's Offices, IRS Criminal Investigation, and other law enforcement partners. We must protect and restore the billions of dollars being stolen from the American people every year. We will continue to prosecute fraudsters who intentionally violate a known legal duty by lying to the IRS, cheating the federal government out of lawful revenue, and stealing money that would otherwise fund vital government programs. I am joined today by several of the fraud division's key partners who work with us to achieve results for the American people. IRS CEO Frank Bisignano, IRS criminal investigation chief Jared Koopman, and four of the dozens of U.S. attorneys whose offices are working every day to root out fraud. Kelly Hayes of the District of Maryland, David Tepfer of the Northern District of Ohio, Kevin Holmes of the Western District of Arkansas, and Ryan Raybould of the Northern District of Texas. Our ability to find fraud wherever it hides depends on these partnerships, and we together are resolved to do so for the American people. Now I'd like to invite IRS CEO Frank Bisignano to the podium. Thank you. Thank you, Colin. It's great to be here today. Great job by Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald and by all the members of the team. specifically IRS Criminal Investigations Chief Jared Koopman and the many incredible U.S. attorneys who are here and around the country fighting fraud. We're here to highlight cases that show the important progress we're making against tax fraud in many forms and at a speed that you never saw before and illustrate the essential role the IRS Criminal Investigation Division plays in ensuring our compliance efforts are strong and fair. As the Chief Executive Officer of the IRS, I want to express my appreciation for everything our agents do to serve taxpayers and the country. Thanks to the strong leadership of Jared Koopman and Gary Shapley who are here today, our CI workforce continues to perform an incredibly high level year after year. Criminal investigations efforts remain critical to our ability to protect the tax system. CI's long track record of excellence in investigating tax and financial fraud in all forms is superbly impressive. Improving tax compliance is one of my top priorities. The IRS remains committed to having an enforcement presence that's strong, visible, and robust. Enforcement of the tax laws is critical to ensuring fairness in our tax system. Our compliance program uses data, analytics, and continues to advance and use enhanced technology to focus our enforcement efforts where they matter most. Technology can only assist us, and we will continue to invest in it and using it to drive these efforts even further this year and in the years coming. We, though, can't be successful without our people. That's especially true of our amazing CI agents who investigate all types of tax noncompliance. Criminal investigation is on the front lines of the fight against many different types of tax-related crimes. This includes going after tax evaders in the U.S. and beyond. Rooting out, as you heard, COVID-related tax fraud, stopping abusive, unscrupulous tax return preparers, helping to bring identity thieves and scammers to justice. Another critical component of this effort is our collaboration with our federal partners, specifically the Justice Department. Under President Trump's leadership, this government is working better across all elements for the benefit of our taxpayers. And it showed the greatest effort in the history of going after fraud, waste, and abuse and holding bad actors accountable. I want to thank the Justice Department for partnering with us and making tax enforcement a focus. And I believe this partnership will only get greater and better from what you're hearing today and the opportunities to be able to do a better job for the American taxpayer. I'm grateful for the terrific working relationship between the IRS and the Justice Department. The cases being highlighted today are proof of complete collaboration. Along those lines, I want to recognize the important work being done every day by the Justice Department attorneys. This includes many of who are here today and all across the country, the great work being done. They represent the IRS in all criminal tax cases and many civil ones as well. It's important to remember the work we do together to improve tax compliance helps preserve and strengthen our tax system. For average taxpayers who play by the rules, our activities that we're doing here show them we're doing everything we can to ensure the system is fair we're improving our ability to safeguard the public from identity thieves and scammers as these cases show together the IRS and DOJ are making significant progress in combating tax-related crime i'm proud to work alongside an amazing workforce at IRS Specifically here, highlighting those that run the Criminal Investigation Unit and how that work has collaborated so well with the Department of Justice. Together, we'll continue to ensure our tax system is secure and taxpayers are protected from related fraud and other financial crimes. I thank everybody on the stage here today. I thank you for your time, and it's my honor to introduce the Chief of Criminal Investigations, Jared Koopman. Thank you. Thank you, and good afternoon. My name is Jared Koopman, Chief Tax Compliance Officer and Chief of Criminal Investigation for IRS. I'd like to first acknowledge and thank IRS CEO Frank Bisignano. I'm very grateful that he could join us today and offer some comments. Also, I'd like to acknowledge our DOJ colleagues, Assistant AG McDonald, Deputy Assistant AG Schilling, U.S. Attorneys Raybould, Hayes, Holmes, and Tefner. Thank you for your partnership and hardworking regarding all of these investigations to date. I would also like to thank the dozens of hardworking agents, analysts, professional staff, paralegals, and prosecutors that brought these cases to justice. Without them, these vital tax cases made today would not be possible. The consolidated actions we are announcing today represent an entirely new approach in our enforcement strategy partnering with DOJ to strategically surge resources around a broad range of tax crimes. And although this type of enforcement is the first of its kind, it will not be the last. Let me be absolutely clear, if anyone thought or questioned whether criminal tax enforcement is a priority, today's actions should dispel all doubt. The message is unmistakable. For those who attempt to cheat the system, these investigations are and will remain a top priority of this administration. Today's cases represented more than $490 million in estimated tax loss to the United States that associates to billions of dollars in income, money that should have gone to programs and services Americans rely on every day. Tax fraud is not a technical violation. It is a theft, plain and simple. When individuals or businesses deliberately cheat the tax system, the cost is ultimately carried by the American people. Our job is to uphold fairness. We represent the millions of Americans and businesses that follow the law and pay what they owe. To put the $490 million into perspective, the amount of revenue could support over 95 million school lunches, over 7,500 salaries, annual salaries for teachers or firefighters, over 60,000 Pell grants for students attending college. These comparisons make one thing clear. When someone steals from the tax system, they are stealing from the American communities, schools, public safety, and our children's future. IRSCI's work is about more than protecting a revenue stream. It's about protecting opportunity, fairness, and resources that allow communities to function. The criminal activity uncovered by these investigations is far-reaching, spanning more than 28 states and multiple tax crimes. You'll hear about the Texas-based abusive trust scheme in more detail, which consisted of over $1.5 billion in income, causing more than $200 million in loss. You'll hear about a Pennsylvania pandemic relief and tax credit fraud that allegedly filed more than 100 fraudulent PPP and EIDL loan applications, as well as false tax returns involving more than $56 million in loss. And finally, a New York payroll or employment tax scheme where defendants allegedly used subcontractors to hide the income and not pay over the withholding employment taxes. to the tune of loss of exceeds $5 million. Now, these cases span different industries, different methods, different regions, but they share a common thread. Individuals who sought personal gain at the public's expense. Fraudulent refunds, abusive tax shelters, and payroll tax evasion undermine the integrity of the tax system and the services Americans can count on. IRS CI and Department of Justice remain committed to uncovering these schemes and holding offenders accountable today our message is simple if you purposely exploit the tax system we will find you we will prosecute you and we will not stand by as you continue to steal from the American public thank you and I'll turn it over to US Attorney Hayes good afternoon I'm pleased to be here today as we highlight the administration's continued efforts to eliminate fraud and deliver real results for our hard-working Americans. The charges we are announcing today should send a clear and strong message. We will root out the fraudsters, we will charge the cheaters, and we will bring to justice those who think our tax laws do not apply to them. That is the commitment of my office and I am proud to stand here alongside AAG McDonald, my fellow US attorneys, and our colleagues from the IRS, who all share our dedication to protecting the integrity of the United States tax system. This work is part of a coordinated nationwide effort, one that ensures that we identify emerging fraud schemes quickly and hold accountable those who abuse the public trust. As part of the national tax fraud enforcement surge that we are highlighting today, the grand jury in the District of Maryland recently indicted Martin Navarette, the owner of Navarette Brothers Construction Incorporated, which is based in Glendale, Maryland. Mr. Navarette is charged with willful failure to collect, account for, and pay over taxes, and willful failure to file tax returns. According to the indictment from September 2020 through December of 2025, Mr. Navarrete allegedly failed to pay more than 2.8 million dollars in employment taxes that were withheld from his employees paychecks those were funds that were held in trust for the U.S. Treasury and should have been paid out but were not on behalf of those employees he also allegedly failed to file corporate and individual tax returns for five different years despite his business making over $6.8 million in gross receipts. That is more than $2.8 million owed to the federal government that Mr. Navarrete failed to pay. Of course, I want to emphasize that an indictment is only an accusation, and those charged are presumed innocent until proven guilty at a later criminal proceeding. This case, and so many others charged in Maryland and elsewhere, reflects the tireless investigative work by our Assistant United States Attorneys, our partners at the National Fraud Enforcement Division, and IRS-CI. It also reflects something bigger. Tax fraud harms not just the federal government, but every American who plays by the rules. Enforcing these laws is essential to maintaining fairness, accountability, and public confidence. The prosecution we highlight today is one of many that demonstrates our continued commitment to rooting out fraud. And our hope is that this national surge will reinforce a simple deterrent message. If you cheat the system, you will be identified, investigated, and prosecuted. We here in Maryland look forward to continuing to work side by side with our partners to disrupt this kind of criminal activity and deliver justice for the American people. Thank you. I will now turn it over to U.S. Attorney David Topfer from the Northern District of Ohio for additional remarks. Good afternoon. As we've heard, fraud touches every corner of the country, and unfortunately, the Northern District of Ohio was no exception. In our first example from the Northern District of Ohio, Cleveland tax preparer Sherita Booker was charged with aiding and assisting in the preparation of false, fraudulent federal income tax returns, which resulted in an intended loss of approximately $11 million. According to allegations and court documents, she prepared false returns to obtain large, fraudulent refunds for hundreds of clients. She did this mainly in three principal ways. First, claiming COVID sick leave credits for non-existent businesses and non-existent employees. Second, claiming refunds for unpaid fuel taxes for alleged off-road farm use. And third, making claims for refunds of taxes purportedly overpaid in previous years. This past February, a pharmacist from Ohio named Sebe Sebe was arrested on the other side of the world in the country of Georgia after being a fugitive for nearly 11 years. As a co-owner of several pharmacies in Ohio, he conspired to divert proceeds into personal non-business bank accounts to conceal his income. He was recently sentenced to 24 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to defraud the IRS with an intended loss of more than $420,000. Just today, I can announce that John Seifert was charged by information with wire fraud and filing false tax returns. He was the CEO of a plumbing company and charged with stealing more than $5 million from his employer and the company. He did so by submitting fraudulent invoices and sales figures. And not surprisingly, he failed to claim any of this on his income tax returns, failing to pay over $1.5 million in taxes. To reiterate the message that's already been said, what we are telling people today is that you can try to cheat, you can try to run, you can try to hide, and like one of these fugitives, you might get away with hiding for a few years, but we will find you wherever you go, and we will bring you to justice and hold you accountable for stealing from the American people. I'll now turn it over to my colleague from the Western District of Arkansas, U.S. Attorney Kevin Holmes. Good afternoon. I want to highlight one of our cases that our team handled from the Western District of Arkansas. Marty Linville owned a trucking company in DeQueen. Beginning in 2019 through the third quarter of 2023, Linville issued employees W-2s but didn't file them with the Social Security Administration or make the required tax deposits. He provided false forms to his employees that reported to the IRS that he had paid those. And when the employees' tax returns started getting frozen, they reported it to authorities and started the investigation. The total loss to the government was $2.5 million. Three weeks ago, Linville was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment in order to pay $3.5 million back to the government, which includes the penalties and interest owed. With the administration's support and direction, our office is aggressively pursuing all tax cases, including the employers that are refusing to pay their withholdings and individuals that won't pay, file, and just want to cheat the system. We have seven awaiting sentencing right now, including one going on right now, an individual that started a nonprofit and took money for his own benefit for telling people he was going to buy milk for orphans in Africa. We're not going to let folks get away with that. We want to hold everyone to the same standard and we'll investigate and indict and hold accountable those that owe money to the government. I'm proud to be here on behalf of the Western District of Arkansas and what my team has done and what all my colleagues from around the country have done. I'm going to turn it over to my colleague from the Northern District of Texas, Ryan Raybould. Good afternoon. I'm Ryan Raybould, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas and a proud tax division alum. In fact, my supervisor's in the back there smiling at me. Cut my teeth on these tax cases, so this is something that's near and dear to my heart. I'm proud to stand alongside my partners up here today to announce the results of the nationwide tax enforcement surge. Together, these coordinated efforts reflect one clear message. Tax fraud, no matter its form, no matter who commits it, will be prosecuted vigorously. In the northern district of Texas, our prosecutors and federal partners have advanced significant criminal cases, And I'll talk about some of those right now. First, in conjunction with our DOJ partners, we are announcing charges against McDonald, not McDonald, McDonald, where the defendants allegedly conspired to illegally shelter more than $1.5 billion. That caused a tax loss of $200 million. You can see some of the toys that the main defendant purchased with ill-gotten gains. The indictment further demonstrates how Green harms Main Street investors. This isn't just abstract. It hurts real people. In North Texas, we are becoming the center of gravity for financial services in Fortune 500 companies. Yall Street has launched, and more companies, private equity firms, financial services are relocating to Texas, particularly in record numbers. But that growth requires us to be vigilant and take out, investigate, and indict those financial predators who prey on Main Street Americans. Defendant McDonald also did that. He targeted Main Street Americans and investors in Texas with a bogus securities fraud scheme, promising outlandish returns. And then, of course, once he got the money, he diverted it for his own personal enjoyment, particularly on luxury goods. The second case we're announcing is this. It's a sentencing. A federal judge recently sentenced defendant Ted Henderson to 57 months in prison for preparing fraudulent tax returns and stealing refund money from his clients. and I had a conversation with Jared this a moment ago and apparently in Texas we have the biggest sentences for tax cases so bring your work to Texas third we recently indicted John Fitzgerald for embezzling over 1.5 million from his employer and then of course he filed a false tax return because one of the great things about the tax law is that ill-gotten gains are taxable so Embezzlement proceeds, kickbacks, bribes, drug proceeds, they still got to go on your tax return. And so that's what we charged them with. Finally, in U.S. v. Anderson Condell Jr., the defendant pled guilty, this was recent, to filing fake documents and evading taxes for many, many years. These cases demonstrate the variety of tax fraud cases we have in North Texas, but also demonstrates the quality of agents we have with IRSCI. I always say IRS-CI, it's almost malpractice not to have IRS-CI on a financial fraud case. They're the best in the business, and any chance I get, I bring IRS-CI into the investigation. Keep in mind that every fraudulent return and every dollar of concealed income leads to the same result. It hurts hardworking Americans. I really want to acknowledge the outstanding work of the Fraud Division under our AAG's leadership, as well as IRS and RSCI, and the dedicated AUSAs across the country who serve with honor and distinction, many of whom are in this room, as well as the fantastic, I still call them tax division attorneys that are working these cases. This surge reflects not only national coordination, but a shared determination to protect the integrity of our tax system and to ensure everyone pays their fair share. And let me close with a simple point that's repeated six or seven times, but I've got to say it. If you're promoting fraudulent schemes, filing false returns, or stealing taxpayer dollars, you should assume that these guys are going to look for you, find you, and charge you. And if you're a law-abiding taxpayer, I want you to know that we're working very hard to protect your tax dollars. With that, I'm going to turn it back over to our AG. Thank you. Thank you, Ryan. We'll take a few questions now. Mr. McDonald, thank you so much. Wood Lyman with BorderHawk News. Your map here is missing some pieces, it looks like. It looks like oranges are representing people that are taking part in this. Can you talk a little bit about the other states that are not? So this map here represents the first ever nationwide tax surge that we have launched in the last 45 days. We've announced those results reaching 76 defendants, reaching over 30 newly charged fraud defendants. The map that you see there highlights the participation from across the country, from various different states. I believe 35 different U.S. attorneys' offices participating in this particular surge. And that's what we're trying to do within the fraud division, is to make sure that we are bringing new tools and new collaboration to the fight against fraud. You know who never stops evolving and never stops adapting in the fight against fraud it's the fraudsters they never stop adapting they never stop learning they never stop coming up with better and new ways to steal our money and so the fraud division the department of justice and our partners here in this in this battle against fraud we are doing new things as well committed to always learning and always being ahead of the fraud schemes so that we can come together on days like this and have an impact of several hundred million dollars for the taxpayer based on the great work of the agents and the prosecutors. Yes, sir. Earlier this week, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar had a search warrant executed. As you are the leader of the Fraud Division, we know that there's an investigation related to immigration fraud. I know you can't comment on the investigation, but I want to give the DOJ a chance to respond to accusations from her and Democrats in Congress saying that this was politically motivated. So the Department of Justice each and every day follows the facts and applies the law to reach justice. That's what we do in every division, in every building, in every U.S. Attorney's Office across the country. Today, we are focused on this extraordinary result from our IRS-CI partners, from our U.S. attorney partners across the country, and from all of our federal partners who helped bring to bear this new tool in the fight against fraud. And that indeed is one thing that we are endeavoring to do in the fraud division, is to make sure that we are utilizing all of the tools that Congress has given us to root out fraudsters. You heard that even the ill-gotten gains of fraudsters, those have to be reported to these guys, to the IRS. And you can know sure well that those fraudsters are not. And so what we are doing, better than we've ever done before, is to bring together the tools that Congress has given to fight fraud. And what we do is we follow the facts, we unearth the facts, and we apply the law each and every day to achieve justice for the American people. Yes, sir. Daniel from Politico. I mean, can you tell us more about how much this effort involves higher net worth individuals and large companies versus, you know, non-citizens and other individuals? So for the complete rundown, I would direct you to the press release and the individual charging instruments that outline all of the different prosecutorial actions that have been taken in the last 45 days. I would mention to your question about the high earners or the amount of money involved. For the 31 newly charged defendants in just the last 45 days in this surge, the intended loss associated with those 31 new defendants is over $350 million of loss to the taxpayer. So that demonstrates as an example of the scope of the charges that we are confronting and also the intensity at which we are resolved to bring these cases. Yes, sir. Dave Michaels from the Wall Street Journal. So you've cited loss a few times. what is the estimated recovery can you estimate recoveries here um for the taxpayer and then second the extent that you're charging tax fraud sort of as a an additional charge against people who committed other crimes they spent the money right they probably a lot of them spent the money do you think you'll get that money back or is it gone so the question was uh where where money is already received or possibly spent by fraudsters what are we doing to try to recover that money is that a fair representation of the question so uh the the reality for the american people to know is that yes money when it when it gets out the door at the front end without strong security protocols at the front end preventing money from going to fraudsters at that first step that a lot of that money gets spent it dissipates however what we are doing within the fraud division is to build an asset forfeiture and recovery team so that we can go after the proceeds as best that we can. And if those proceeds have gone into, for instance, a Rolls-Royce or a luxury mansion or an apartment building in Kenya or whatever it might be, we will be using those tools as effectively as we can to ensure that we can recover that. You see some some photos here for instance of some property that property there that particular vehicle is the subject currently the subject of efforts of the united states government to seize uh based on allegations that it is the proceeds of a fraud scheme so we are doing that we are intent on building an apparatus that deters fraudsters that punishes fraudsters that deters would-be fraudsters and that claws the money back wherever it might be we will be working night and day to try to recover that money so these these cases uh sentences guilty pleas and charging instruments at the at the end of the case you have to have a actual money judgment a judgment from the court a forfeiture order or a restitution order in the case and then at that point when you have that piece of paper from the court, then you are able to actually execute that and then recover those assets. These cases are at various stages, including, as you just heard, some charged today, and they involve the intended loss numbers that we've outlined, including $350 million in just the 31 newly charged defendants from the last 45 days. One more question. Yes, ma'am. I just have two questions on fraud, if that's okay. Nicole Skanger from CBS News. Thanks for doing this. I am curious about how many money judgments you might have, but also how far back these alleged crimes go, how many are COVID relief linked. And I know you mentioned that there are 30 brand new defendants of the remaining 46 or how many have been actually convicted. So yes, the, uh, of those numbers, as I mentioned, 31 newly charged, the others are in two categories. Those who've been convicted either by virtue of guilty pleas or in the two trials that our tax attorneys and our U.S. attorney networks have achieved in the last 45 days. So either guilty pleas, trial convictions, or sentencings comprise the sum of the number, in addition to the 31 newly charged defendants. If I can just ask, I mean, you talk about cracking down on fraud wherever it occurs, including non-citizens. Applying that same standard to the DOJ and HSI's investigation of suspected illegal voting, we're less than three weeks away from Election day can you tell us how many leads agents have investigated or doors they've knocked on versus prosecutions and critically how many actual illegally cast ballots have been confirmed through that fraud work so today we're focused on this map here which outlines the work of these great ladies and gentlemen who have worked hard for the last 45 days to bring this first ever tax surge to ensure that the taxpayer dollars of Americans are preserved to the best that we can. This is on the heels of the various other iterations of these fraud takedowns that we've had over the last six months, including Social Security and SNAP and HUD and labor and a variety of other federal government programs that are being stolen from by criminal fraudsters. This is no different. These are fraudsters who are sending a piece of paper to a government entity with lies for the purpose of stealing money from the American taxpayer. That is what we are resolved to combat to protect the financial integrity of the United States of America. And this is yet another signal that we are all in and resolved to stop the scams and protect the financial integrity of our country. Thank you all.