U.S. Attorney’s Office For The Eastern District Of Michigan Collects $219,630,095.00 In Civil And Criminal Actions For U.S. Taxpayers In Fiscal Year 2013

Detroit – United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade announced today that the Eastern District of Michigan collected $219,630,095.00 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2013.  Of this amount, $204, 334,075.94 was collected in criminal actions and $15,296,019.06 was collected in civil actions

Additionally, the Eastern District of Michigan worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $84,508,264.20 in cases pursued jointly with these offices.   Of this amount, $35,054.89 was collected in criminal actions and $84,473,209.40 was collected in civil actions.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced on Thursday that the Justice Department collected $8 billion in civil and criminal actions in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2013. The more than $8.1 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 taxpayer,” 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 Barbara L. McQuade stated, “Thanks to the hard work of attorneys and support professionals in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, we were able to collect money that will be returned to victims of crime and taxpayers. These numbers are particularly impressive in light of the government shutdown, budget cuts and the hiring freeze that has reduced our personnel. The fact that our office collects far more than it spends demonstrates the illogic of across-the-board budget cuts that reduce our ability to collect funds for taxpayers.”

This past July, the Eastern District of Michigan obtained $4 million in the settlement of a lawsuit brought under the False Claims Act against a cardiology practice and a hospital in Jackson, Michigan. The complaint alleged that cardiologists employed by Jackson Cardiology Associates performed medically inappropriate cardiac procedures, including invasive catheterizations at Allegiance Health in addition to performing a variety of other office-based medically unnecessary test.  A portion of the settlement with Allegiance Health also covered medically unnecessary peripheral stents performed on an outpatient basis.

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 Eastern District of Michiganworking with partner agencies and divisions, collected a total of $7,967,328.00 in both Department of Justice and Department of Treasury asset forfeiture actions in FY 2013. 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.