U.S. Attorney's Office Collects Over $780 Million In Civil And Criminal Actions In Fiscal Year 2019

DENVER – U.S. Attorney Jason R. Dunn announced today that the District of Colorado collected $781,336,222 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2019.  Of this amount, $7,222,012 was collected in criminal actions and $774,114,209 was collected in civil actions. 

Additionally, the District of Colorado worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $36,027,598 in cases pursued jointly by these offices.  Of this amount, $36,496 was collected in criminal actions and $35,991,102 was collected in civil actions.

“The United States Attorney’s Office has Assistant U.S. Attorneys and collection specialists who have done an outstanding job of collecting money due to the federal government and to victims during the 2018 fiscal year,” said U.S. Attorney Jason Dunn.  “This office will continue its focus on these important collection efforts.”

Included in the civil collections was a settlement with HSBC in which HSBC paid $765 million to settle claims related to its securitization and sale of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) between 2005 and 2007.  Federally-insured financial institutions and others suffered major losses from investing in RMBS issued and sold by HSBC.  Under the settlement, HSBC paid $765 million as a civil penalty pursuant to the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act. 

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 collected to federal and state victim compensation and victim assistance programs.

Additionally, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Colorado, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected $7,058,761 in asset forfeiture actions in FY 2019.  Forfeited assets deposited into the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund are used to restore funds to crime victims and for a variety of law enforcement purposes.