U.S. Attorneys' Offices Contribute To $6.68 Billion In Civil And Criminal Collections In Fiscal Year 2010
Recoveries Largest In History
Contact: Peter Deegan
(Cedar Rapids, IA) - U.S. Attorney Stephanie M. Rose announced that financial collections by the Department of Justice in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 reached an all-time high due to the efforts of U.S. Attorneys’ offices nationwide. The 94 U.S. Attorneys’ offices nation-wide contributed to the collection of $6.68 billion during the government’s fiscal year. This is the most successful collection year by the U.S. Attorneys’ offices.
According to statistics from the Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa collected almost $4.6 million in FY 2010. Of this amount, $1.2 million was collected in criminal actions and $1.3 million was collected in civil actions. The office also collected almost $2.1 million in criminal and civil forfeitures.
“Most people associate our office with the time criminals are sent to prison,” said Rose. “However, recovering money for crime victims, protecting government funds, and taking ill-gotten gains from criminals are some of our most important jobs. Economic times are tough for the general public, and we intend to make economic crimes tougher on violators by taking their money.”
The U.S. Attorneys’ offices are responsible for enforcing and collecting civil and criminal debts owed to the United States and criminal debts owed to federal crime victims. Statistics from the Department of Justice show the total amount collected in criminal actions totaled $2.84 billion in restitution, criminal fines, and felony assessments. 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 directly 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.
Additionally, the U.S. Attorneys’ offices contributed to the collection of $1.8 billion in asset forfeiture actions in FY 2010. Forfeited assets are deposited into either the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund or the Department of Treasury Forfeiture Fund and are used to restore funds to crime victims and for a variety of law enforcement purposes.
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The statistics also show $3.84 billion was collected in civil actions. The largest civil collections were from affirmative civil enforcement cases where the United States recovered government money lost to fraud or other misconduct or collected fines imposed on individuals and 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, and Small Business Administration.
The nationwide collection totals for FY 2010 represent nearly a 30% increase in criminal collections and 57% increase in civil collections over FY 2009. In FY 2009, the U.S. Attorneys’ offices contributed to the collection of more than $4.6 billion. Of the amount collected, $2.23 billion was collected criminally and $2.44 billion was collected civilly. The significant increase in collections was due to various large criminal restitution cases as well as large health care fraud cases.
For further information, the United States Attorneys’ Annual Statistical Reports through FY 2009 can be found on the Internet at http://www.justice.gov/usao/reading_room/foiamanuals.html.
