District of Maine U.S. Attorney’s Office Collects over $1.5 Million in Civil and Criminal Actions for U.S. Taxpayers in Fiscal Year 2014

Contact: Donald E. Clark
Assistant United States Attorney
Tel: (207) 780-3257

Portland, Maine: United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced today that
the District of Maine collected $1,525,980 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2014. Of
this amount, $847,901.95 was collected in criminal actions and $678,078.23 was collected in
civil actions.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced yesterday that the Justice Department collected
$24.7 billion in civil and criminal actions in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2014. More than
$24 billion in collections in FY 2014 represents nearly eight and a half times the appropriated
$2.91 billion budget for the 94 U.S. Attorney’s offices and the main litigating divisions in that
same period.

“Every day, the Justice Department’s federal prosecutors and trial attorneys work hard to
protect our citizens, to safeguard precious taxpayer resources, and to provide a valuable return on
investment to the American people,” said Attorney General Holder. “Their diligent efforts are
enabling us to achieve justice and recoup losses in virtually every sector of the U.S.
economy. And this result shows the fruits of the Justice Department’s tireless work in enforcing
federal laws; in protecting the American people from violent crime, national security threats,
discrimination, exploitation, and abuse; and in holding financial institutions accountable for their
roles in causing the 2008 financial crisis.”

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 Maine, working with partner agencies and
divisions, collected $484,379 in asset forfeiture actions in FY 2014. 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.