Wyoming U.S. Attorney's Office Collects $7,059,989 In Civil And Criminal Actions For U.S. Taxpayers In Fiscal Year 2014

Cheyenne - U.S. Attorney Christopher A. “Kip” Crofts announced today that the District of Wyoming US Attorney’s Office collected $7,059,989 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2014. Of this amount, $2,974,012 was collected in criminal actions and $4,085,977 was collected in civil actions.

Additionally, the District of Wyoming worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect $73,596 in cases pursued jointly with these offices.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced on November 19th that the Justice Department collected $24.7 billion in civil and criminal actions in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2014. The more than $24 billion in collections in FY 2014 represents nearly eight and a half times the appropriated $2.91 billion budget for the 94 U.S. Attorney’s offices and the main litigating divisions in that same period.

“Every day, the Justice Department’s prosecutors and trial attorneys work hard to protect our citizens, to safeguard precious taxpayer resources, and to provide a valuable return on investment to the American people,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “Their diligent efforts are enabling us to achieve justice and recoup losses in virtually every sector of the U.S. economy. And as a result, I can report today that – during Fiscal Year 2014 – the Justice Department collected a total of $24.7 billion in civil and criminal actions.”

“I am very pleased with the efforts of the Wyoming U.S. Attorney’s Office in collecting more than twice the annual cost of operating the office and for providing great value to the American taxpayers,” said U.S. Attorney Crofts.

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.