United States Attorney’s Office collects more than $68,000,000 in 2025 based on fraud, waste and abuse

BUFFALO, N.Y. - U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced today that the Affirmative Civil Enforcement (ACE) Unit of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of New York recovered more than $68,000,000 in 2025 through settlement agreements and enforcement actions.

In 2025, the ACE Unit settled False Claims Act (FCA) cases, including cases that arose under the FCA's qui tam or whistleblower provision. Among the settlements:

• Pfizer, on behalf of Pfizer's subsidiary Biohaven, paid more than $50,000,000 to settle allegations that Biohaven paid kickbacks to providers in return for the providers prescribing Biohaven's drug Nurtec.
• Five cases involving Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) fraud, which will result in the recovery of more than $10,000,000.

The ACE Unit also settled non-False Claims Act related matters, including self-disclosed overpayments to federal health care programs and several claims involving the federally funded Railroad Retirement Board pension program.

U.S. Attorney DiGiacomo praised the work of the ACE Unit stating, "The settlements and recoveries achieved by the ACE Unit in 2025 demonstrate this Office's commitment to protecting taxpayer money. My office will continue to aggressively root out fraud, waste, and abuse involving government programs and hold those responsible accountable"

The ACE Unit is the civil arm of the United States Attorney's Office that investigates and pursues civil claims to recover money lost to fraud and other misconduct under the Federal False Claims Act. The False Claims Act allows the government to recover both the underlying loss amount and adds to the amount a damage multiplier. Many of these cases result from individuals or entities with inside information about fraudulent conduct.

Individuals with information about allegations of fraud are encouraged to report information to federal authorities. Information about fraud involving federal health care programs can be reported to HHS Office of Inspector General (1-800-HHS-TIPS) or the FBI (1-800-CALL-FBI). Information about COVID-19 fraud can be reported by calling the Department of Justice's National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

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