News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 3, 2009
In matters prosecuted by the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of West Virginia:
U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE COLLECTS OVER $8 MILLION
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Charles T. Miller, United States Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia, announced today that collections totaling over $8.4 million have been recovered by his office during the past fiscal year. The collections, which exceed the annual operating budget for the office, include: restitution payments for crime victims; fines, assessments and court costs on criminal convictions; forfeitures; and civil collections in the state's Southern District.
"This figure indicates outstanding collection efforts of our Financial Litigation Unit," Miller commented. "That task can be difficult, but the amount of our recent collections reflect a great dedication by highly committed individuals."
Under federal law, judges impose restitution where victims suffer physical injury or pecuniary loss in cases involving a crime of violence, certain property offenses, fraud or deceit, and consumer product tampering. Additionally, restitution is imposed for cases involving sexual abuse, sexual exploitation and abuse of children, domestic violence and telemarketing fraud. Federal law also allows for discretionary restitution in certain cases. "True justice not only happens when a defendant is held accountable for his or her crime, but when the victim is completely restored to the extent practical. That is why these laws were enacted. While we as prosecutors cannot ensure a crime victim is restored emotionally, we will do everything within our power to see that criminals are punished and the victim is restored financially," stated United States Attorney Miller.
Special Assessments collected by United States Attorneys' Offices throughout the country fund the Crime Victims Fund which was established by the Victims of Crime Act. This Fund provides state victim compensation programs with money to reimburse crime victims for out of pocket expenses such as funeral and burial costs, loss work, and medical and counseling expenses. The Fund also provides for local victim assistance programs, such as rape crisis centers and domestic violence programs, to help support victims. States, including West Virginia, receive money from this Fund to support these programs.
Though United States Attorneys' Offices are primarily recognized for their criminal prosecutions, each office also dedicates a full time staff to affirmative civil enforcement, or the recovery of monetary losses incurred by the government resulting from fraud and other violations of federal civil statutes. The False Claims Act (FCA), a federal statute dating back to the civil war, is the Government's primary civil weapon against fraud. The FCA imposes civil liability for anyone who knowingly presents or causes the presentation of a false or fraudulent claim for money to the United States. Under the FCA, the United States may recover three times the actual loss resulting from such false claims, plus not less than $5,500 and not more than $11,000 per false claim submitted.
Of the $8.4 million collected by the United States Attorney's office in the past fiscal year, nearly $5 million was collected through affirmative civil litigation. Of that, nearly $1 million was related to frauds against federal health care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Miller noted, "We have an obligation to taxpayers and beneficiaries of federal programs to ensure that federal dollars are used for the purpose for which they were designated, and not to line the pockets of fraudsters and thieves. Our civil recoveries are just as important as the dollars collected in restitution in criminal cases. In many instances, the deterrent of recovering three times the money fraudulently obtained, plus penalties, is as effective as a period of confinement for a white collar offender. It is, after all, the money that drives these offenders to commit fraudulent acts in the first place."