Rankings & leaderboards·DOJ Enforcement & Districts
Federal Districts by Pandemic-Fraud Cases Announced
Which federal judicial districts the Justice Department's pandemic-fraud announcements came out of, counted from the 3,093 press releases in the archive's published index. Massachusetts leads the 93 coded districts with 178 releases, followed by Florida, Middle (134) and New Jersey (122); the top 25 account for 1,718 (60.9 percent) of the 2,822 district-coded releases.
Release window 17 March 2020 to 2 October 2026Coded universe 2,822 releases across 93 districts (271 uncoded)Source DOJ pandemic-fraud press index
- Releases in No. 1 Massachusetts (2020-04-16 to 2026-09-17)
- 178
- Releases in the top 25 districts (60.9% of 2,822 coded)
- 1,718
- District-coded releases across 93 federal judicial districts
- 2,822
- Releases in the 3,093-row index carrying no district code
- 271
Where the announcements clustered
Counts of Justice Department pandemic-fraud press releases by the single judicial district recorded for the case, paired with each district’s announcement window.
The 25 districts with the most pandemic-fraud press releases
Press releases in the archive’s index (17 March 2020 to 2 October 2026). Each district name opens its district page in the archive.
Source: DOJ pandemic-fraud press index (doj-pandemic-fraud-press-index.csv).
The top 25 districts account for 1,718 of the 2,822 district-coded releases (60.9%)
How the 3,093 pandemic-fraud releases in the DOJ press index divide between the top 25 districts, the other 68 coded districts, and 271 releases without a district code.
Announcement windows: first to most recent release
Earliest (open circle) to most recent (filled circle) pandemic-fraud press release per district for the top 15 districts plus Colorado (rank 20, first release 2021-06-04).
- 1. Massachusetts
- 2. Florida, Middle
- 3. New Jersey
- 4. Florida, Southern
- 5. California, Central
- 6. Maryland
- 7. Louisiana, Eastern
- 8. Virginia, Eastern
- 9. Georgia, Northern
- 10. New York, Western
- 11. New York, Southern
- 12. West Virginia, Southern
- 13. Missouri, Western
- 14. North Carolina, Eastern
- 15. Pennsylvania, Middle
- 20. Colorado
Window: 17 March 2020 to 2 October 2026 across all 3,093 releases in doj-pandemic-fraud-press-index.csv.
- 1
Massachusetts
178Pandemic-fraud press releases · 1st of 93 coded districts- First release
- 2020-04-16
- Most recent
- 2026-09-17
Most pandemic-fraud releases of any federal judicial district in the 3,093-release index.
Source: DOJ press index · District cases
- 2
Florida, Middle
134Pandemic-fraud press releases · 2nd of 93 coded districts- First release
- 2020-03-30
- Most recent
- 2026-09-14
Second-highest release count; combined with Florida, Southern (113, rank 4), the two Florida districts in the top 25 account for 247 releases.
Source: DOJ press index · District cases
- 3
New Jersey
122Pandemic-fraud press releases · 3rd of 93 coded districts- First release
- 2020-03-21
- Most recent
- 2026-10-02
Includes the latest release date in the top 25 (2026-10-02, the closing date of the snapshot).
Source: DOJ press index · District cases
The 25 districts with the most releases
Sortable by release count, first announcement date, or most recent announcement date.
| # | District | Source | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Massachusetts | 178 | 2020-04-16 | 2026-09-17 | DOJ press index (to 2 Oct 2026) |
| 2 | Florida, Middle | 134 | 2020-03-30 | 2026-09-14 | DOJ press index (to 2 Oct 2026) |
| 3 | New Jersey | 122 | 2020-03-21 | 2026-10-02 | DOJ press index (to 2 Oct 2026) |
| 4 | Florida, Southern | 113 | 2020-04-08 | 2026-09-21 | DOJ press index (to 2 Oct 2026) |
| 5 | California, Central | 94 | 2020-03-20 | 2026-09-25 | DOJ press index (to 2 Oct 2026) |
| 6 | Maryland | 92 | 2020-08-27 | 2026-08-19 | DOJ press index (to 2 Oct 2026) |
| 7 | Louisiana, Eastern | 80 | 2020-03-23 | 2026-09-14 | DOJ press index (to 2 Oct 2026) |
| 8 | Virginia, Eastern | 75 | 2020-05-29 | 2026-09-30 | DOJ press index (to 2 Oct 2026) |
| 9 | Georgia, Northern | 67 | 2020-03-24 | 2026-09-03 | DOJ press index (to 2 Oct 2026) |
| 10 | New York, Western | 65 | 2020-03-22 | 2026-09-24 | DOJ press index (to 2 Oct 2026) |
| 11 | New York, Southern | 59 | 2020-05-21 | 2026-08-25 | DOJ press index (to 2 Oct 2026) |
| 12 | West Virginia, Southern | 59 | 2020-03-21 | 2026-09-16 | DOJ press index (to 2 Oct 2026) |
| 13 | Missouri, Western | 51 | 2020-03-23 | 2026-09-17 | DOJ press index (to 2 Oct 2026) |
| 14 | North Carolina, Eastern | 51 | 2020-03-20 | 2026-08-24 | DOJ press index (to 2 Oct 2026) |
| 15 | Pennsylvania, Middle | 49 | 2020-03-24 | 2026-09-24 | DOJ press index (to 2 Oct 2026) |
| 16 | New York, Eastern | 47 | 2020-03-20 | 2026-06-10 | DOJ press index (to 2 Oct 2026) |
| 17 | North Carolina, Western | 47 | 2020-03-23 | 2026-09-22 | DOJ press index (to 2 Oct 2026) |
| 18 | California, Eastern | 45 | 2020-04-02 | 2026-06-23 | DOJ press index (to 2 Oct 2026) |
| 19 | Michigan, Eastern | 45 | 2020-03-23 | 2026-09-30 | DOJ press index (to 2 Oct 2026) |
| 20 | Colorado | 44 | 2021-06-04 | 2026-05-26 | DOJ press index (to 2 Oct 2026) |
| 21 | Georgia, Southern | 43 | 2020-04-07 | 2026-09-10 | DOJ press index (to 2 Oct 2026) |
| 22 | Illinois, Northern | 42 | 2020-03-20 | 2026-09-14 | DOJ press index (to 2 Oct 2026) |
| 23 | Ohio, Southern | 40 | 2020-03-23 | 2026-09-15 | DOJ press index (to 2 Oct 2026) |
| 24 | District of Columbia | 38 | 2020-04-02 | 2026-09-18 | DOJ press index (to 2 Oct 2026) |
| 25 | Nevada | 38 | 2020-03-18 | 2026-07-15 | DOJ press index (to 2 Oct 2026) |
How this list is built
Method & definitions
- Unit ranked
- the federal judicial district recorded for the case.
- Metric
- count of pandemic-fraud press releases.
- Universe
- 3,093 releases, of which 2,822 carry a district across 93 districts; the 25 below account for 1,718, 60.9 percent of the coded releases. 271 releases carry no district and are not ranked.
- Vintage
- releases from 17 March 2020 to 2 October 2026.
The archive's press index has one row per Justice Department press release about pandemic-relief fraud, and records a federal judicial district for the case on each one it could read. This list counts releases per district and ranks by the count; the date columns are the earliest and latest release in the index for that district. The district codes in the file are abbreviations, and the names below are the U.S. Attorney's Office named on the releases carrying each code.
What this measures, and what it does not
This counts announcements, not cases, defendants or convictions. A single prosecution can generate several releases — charge, plea, sentence — and one release can cover several defendants. A district whose U.S. Attorney's Office has an active press operation will rank above a district that charges as many cases and says less.
This is not the same count as U.S. Attorney's Offices by Pandemic-Fraud Announcements, and the two lists will not agree row for row. That list ranks the office that announced. The index records the announcing office as a tag string, and one release can carry several tags: a second district, a Justice Department division, an investigating agency. That list splits each string, keeps the U.S. Attorney's Office components, and credits a release to every office it names. This list instead uses the single district the index records for the case, so a release announced jointly by two offices counts once here and twice there.
The two lists read the same snapshot of the index: the 3,093 releases in the published download linked below.
The count is of releases in the index. A release the index missed is not counted, and a case an office never announced is invisible to it. Nothing here ranks districts by how much fraud occurred in them.
Sources
- Archive data page: DOJ pandemic-fraud press index
- Our copy:
doj-pandemic-fraud-press-index.csv, the published download linked above (sha256 01ff6f75b4ea8edc…)