District Of Arizona, U.S. Attorney’s Office Collects $7,714,214.29 In Civil And Criminal Actions For U.S. Taxpayers In Fiscal Year 2013.

            PHOENIX - U.S. Attorney John S. Leonardo announced today that the District of Arizona collected $7,714,214.29 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2013.  Of this amount, $4,778,821.61 was collected in criminal actions and $2,935,392.68 was collected in civil actions. 

            Additionally, the District of Arizona worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $519,544,297.16 in cases pursued jointly with these offices.  Of this amount, $7,919.06 was collected in criminal actions and $519,536,378.10 was collected in civil actions.

            Attorney General Eric Holder announced earlier today that the Justice Department collected approximately $8.1 billion in civil and criminal actions in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2013.  The more than $8 billion in collections in FY 2013 represents nearly three times the appropriated $2.76 billion budget for the 94 U.S. Attorney’s offices and the main litigating divisions in that same period.

“The department’s enforcement actions help to not only ensure justice is served, but also deliver a valuable return to the American people,” said Attorney General Holder. “It is critical that Congress provide the resources necessary to match the department’s mounting caseload. As these figures show, supporting our federal prosecutors is a sound investment.”

United States Attorney John S. Leonardo stated, “The funding appropriated by Congress in support of United States Attorney’s Offices is a good investment for the American taxpayer with a return of nearly fivefold. It is truly remarkable that this was accomplished during a year of reduced budgets and a hiring freeze. With more resources, the amount collected could have been even greater.”

            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.

            Additionally, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District Of Arizona, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected $13,303,210 in asset forfeiture actions in FY 2013.  Forfeited assets are deposited into the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund and are used to restore funds to crime victims and for a variety of law enforcement purposes.

RELEASE NUMBER:           2014-001_FY13Collections

For more information on the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/az