U.S. Attorney’s Office Collects $156 Million in Criminal and Civil Actions for U.S. Taxpayers in Fiscal Year 2016

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – U.S. Attorney Dana J. Boente announced today that the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA) collected $156,514,010.12 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2016.  Of this amount, $49,997,392.53 was collected in criminal actions and $106,516,617.59 was collected in civil actions. 

Additionally, EDVA worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $3,635,377.40 in cases pursued jointly with these offices.    Of this amount, $29,737.34 was collected in criminal actions and $3,605,640.06 was collected in civil actions.

Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch announced yesterday that the Justice Department collected nearly $15.4 billion in civil and criminal actions in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2016.  The $15,380,130,434 in collections in FY 2016 represents more than five times the appropriated $2.93 billion budget for the 94 U.S. Attorneys’ offices and the main litigating divisions of the Justice Department combined in that same period.

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.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.