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Press Release

Middle District Of North Carolina United States Attorney’s Office Collects $2,643,276.87 In Civil And Criminal Actions For U.S. Taxpayers In Fiscal Year 2013

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Middle District of North Carolina

GREENSBORO, N.C. – United States Attorney Ripley Rand announced today that the Middle District of North Carolina collected $2,643,276.87 in criminal and civil actions during Fiscal Year 2013. Of this amount, $1,381,953.47 was collected in criminal actions and $1,261,323.40 was collected in civil actions

Additionally, Middle District of North Carolina worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $1,062.00 in criminal actions pursued jointly with these offices.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced on Thursday 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 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.”

“Our employees work very hard every day to collect money owed to crime victims and to the government,” said U.S. Attorney Rand. “These are tough economic times for everyone, and we will continue to focus on collections efforts to seek justice for crime victims and hold accountable those who seek to profit from illegal activity.”

The U.S. Attorney’s 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.

Additionally, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Middle District of North Carolina, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected $2,621,465.00 in asset forfeiture actions in FY 2013. Forfeited assets deposited into the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund and Department of Treasury Asset Forfeiture Fund are used to restore funds to crime victims and for a variety of law enforcement purposes.

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.

Updated March 19, 2015