Arizona U.S. Attorney’s Office Collects Over $9.3 Million in Civil and Criminal Actions in Fiscal Year 2015

     PHOENIX - U.S. Attorney John S. Leonardo announced today that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona collected $9,334,911 in fiscal year 2015.  These recoveries were split nearly equally between criminal actions ($4,603,192) and civil actions ($4,731,718).  Additionally, the District of Arizona worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $2,200,808 in jointly-pursued cases and collected an additional $7,856,523 in asset forfeiture actions. 

     “We are very pleased to have collected millions of dollars on behalf of crime victims and taxpayers in the past year.  We and our law enforcement partners take seriously our responsibility to enforce such obligations,” stated U.S. Attorney John S. Leonardo.

     "The Department of Justice is committed to upholding the rule of law, safeguarding taxpayer resources, and protecting the American people from exploitation and abuse,” said Attorney General Loretta Lynch.  “The collections we are announcing today demonstrate not only the strength of that commitment, but also the significant return on public investment that our actions deliver.  I want to thank the prosecutors and trial attorneys who made this achievement possible, and to reiterate our dedication to this ongoing work.”

     In addition, Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch announced today that the Justice Department collected $23.1 billion in civil and criminal actions in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2015.  The more than $23.1 billion in collections in FY 2015 represents more than seven and a half times the approximately $2.93 billion of the Justice Department’s combined appropriations for the 94 U.S. Attorneys’ offices and the main litigating divisions in that same period.            

     The U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, along with the Department of Justice’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. Restitution is paid to the victim while 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 corporations for violations of federal health, safety, civil rights, and environmental laws.  In addition, civil debts were collected on behalf of several federal agencies, including the. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Internal Revenue Service, the Small Business Administration, and the Department of Education.

RELEASE NUMBER:   2015-118_FY15Collections

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