Eastern District of New York U.S. Attorney’s Office Joins in Collections of Over $3.4 Billion in Criminal and Civil Actions in Fiscal Year 2017

United States Attorney Richard P. Donoghue announced today that the Eastern District of New York, working collaboratively with other offices as well as on its own, collected over $3.4 billion in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2017.  Of this amount, $3,109,923,738 resulted from cases handled in conjunction with other U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and components of the Department of Justice.  Collections from criminal and civil actions handled solely by the Eastern District of New York totaled $319,091,148, with $216,178,698 in criminal actions and $102,912,449 in civil actions.

“The Eastern District’s robust recoveries in Fiscal Year 2017 reflects the Office’s  commitment to justice by combatting fraud and other misconduct, forfeiting the proceeds and instrumentalities of crime, and providing restitution to the victims of crime,” stated U.S. Attorney Donoghue.

Overall, the Department of Justice collected just over $15 billion in civil and criminal actions in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2017. 

Additionally, working with partner agencies and divisions within the Department of Justice, the Eastern District forfeited $92,106,132 in assets tainted by crime.  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.

FY 2017 Collections Highlights

In January 2017, the Eastern District of New York, in conjunction with its partners, recovered $3.1 billion in civil penalties from Deutsche Bank under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA), to resolve claims related to Deutsche Bank’s conduct in the packaging, securitization, marketing, sale and issuance of Residential Mortgage Backed Securities (RMBS) prior to 2008.  In a Statement of Facts that accompanied the settlement, Deutsche Bank admitted to making false representations and omitting material information from disclosures to investors about the loans in its RMBS securitizations.

In September 2017, AmerisourceBergen Specialty Group (ABSG), a wholly-owned subsidiary of AmerisourceBergen Corporation, one of the nation’s largest wholesale drug companies and number 11 on the Fortune 500 list, pled guilty to illegally distributing misbranded drugs.  ABSG agreed to pay a total of $260 million to resolve criminal liability for its distribution of oncology supportive-care drugs from a facility that was not registered with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). 

Collections Overview

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.