U.S. Attorney’s Office For The Eastern District Of North Carolina Collects $17,584,288.83 In Civil And Criminal Actions For U.S. Taxpayers In Fiscal Year 2013

RALEIGH - U.S. Attorney Thomas G. Walker announced today that the Eastern District of North Carolina collected $17,584,288.83 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2013.  The Office collected $2.5 million more than the total amount appropriated to run the entire office for the fiscal year.

Additionally, the Eastern District of North Carolina worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $8,103,269.75 in cases pursued jointly with these offices.  Of this amount, $10,182.59 was collected in criminal actions and $8,093,087.16 was collected in civil actions.

“Collections of debts owed to the United States and to crime victims is a top priority of our office,” stated Mr. Walker.  “In these tight budgetary times for our nation, we will continue our effective collection efforts on behalf of the United States and the victims of crimes.”

During the past fiscal year the Eastern District of North Carolina has recovered $772,658.21 in restitution and fines owed in federal crop insurance fraud and investment fraud cases.  The office also recovered a total of $739,732.75 in the Freedman Farms case, of which a portion of the money collected was used for the protection and restoration of wetlands in our State. In addition, the Wake Med Medicare case resulted in a civil fraud restitution collection of $8 million in fiscal year 2013. 

The U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, along with the department’s litigating divisions, are responsible for enforcing and collecting civil and criminal debts owed to the U.S. and criminal debts owed to federal crime victims.  The law requires defendants to pay restitution to victims of certain federal crimes who have suffered a physical injury or financial loss.  While restitution is paid to the victim, criminal fines and felony assessments are paid to the department’s Crime Victims’ Fund, which distributes the funds to state victim compensation and victim assistance programs.

The largest civil collections were from affirmative civil enforcement cases, in which the United States recovered government money lost to fraud or other misconduct or collected fines imposed on individuals and/or corporations for violations of federal health, safety, civil rights or environmental laws.  In addition, civil debts were collected on behalf of several federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Internal Revenue Service, Small Business Administration and Department of Education.

Additionally, the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of North Carolina, working with Justice & Treasury Department partner agencies and divisions, collected $3,637,575 in asset forfeiture actions in FY 2013.  Forfeited assets are deposited into the Department of Justice and Department of the Treasury Asset Forfeiture Funds and are used to restore funds to crime victims and for a variety of law enforcement purposes.