U.S. Attorney Steven M. Dettelbach announced today that the Northern District of Ohio collected $79.7 million in Fiscal Year 2012 related to criminal and civil actions, more than quadruple the office’s annual budget.

Of this amount, $62.5 million was collected in civil actions and $8.7 million was collected in criminal actions.  Additionally, the office collected $8.5 million in criminal and civil forfeitures.

The office’s total overall budget for this fiscal year was about $17.9 million.

“Year after year, our office brings in more money than it costs taxpayers,” Dettelbach said. “We will continue to hold accountable those who seek to profit from their illegal activities.”

The money is used to compensate crime victims, is distributed to state and local law enforcement partners who participate in investigations, and returned to the general treasury.

Among the large collections this year:

In May, Omnicare, Inc., the nation’s leading provider of pharmaceutical care for seniors, paid the United States $50 million in civil penalties to resolve claims that its various pharmacy facilities improperly dispensed substances to patients at long-term care facilities across the country.  The settlement was the second-largest recovery by the Justice Department under the civil penalty provisions of the Controlled Substances Act.

In April, Cleveland-based Anthony Allega Cement Contractors Inc. paid $500,000 to resolve claims that it knowingly submitted false claims related to the federally funded construction project at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport revolving around the use of disadvantaged business enterprise subcontractors.

The total amount is the most collected since FY 2006. A complete breakdown for the past decade is as follows:

2011:  $48.6 million

2010: $42 million

2009: $17.7 million

2008: $36.7 million

2007: $63.5 million

2006: $80 million

2005: $51.4 million

2004: $22.3 million

2003: $21.9 million

2002: $48.4 million

Nationwide, the U.S. Attorneys’ offices collected $13.1 billion in criminal and civil actions during FY 2012, more than doubling the $6.5 billion collected in FY 2011.  A portion of this amount, $5.3 billion, was collected in shared cases in which one or more U.S. Attorneys’ offices or department litigating divisions were also involved.  The $13.1 billion represents more than six times the appropriated budget of the combined 94 offices for FY 2012.

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.  Statistics indicate that the total amount collected in criminal actions totaled $3.035 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.

The statistics also indicate that $10.12 billion was collected by the U.S. Attorneys’ offices in individually and jointly handled civil actions.  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, and Small Business Administration.

Additionally, the U.S. Attorneys’ offices, working with partner agencies and divisions – including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General and others -- collected $4.389 billion in asset forfeiture actions in FY 2012.

Forfeited assets are deposited into the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund and Department of Treasury Forfeiture Fund and are used to restore funds to crime victims and for a variety of law enforcement purposes.

The $13.16 billion collected nationwide by the U.S. Attorneys’ offices for FY 2012 nearly matches the $13.18 billion collected in FY 2010 and FY 2011 combined.

 

Return to Top