Montana U.S. Attorney’s Office collects $15.3 million in civil and criminal actions for fiscal year 2018

BILLINGS—Montana's U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme announced today that the District of Montana collected $15,351,505.81 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2018.  Of this amount, $7,510,702.15 was collected in criminal actions and $7,840,803.56 was collected in civil actions.  In some cases, the U.S. Attorney’s Office worked in conjunction with ligating components of the U.S. Department of Justice.

 “I want to thank the dedicated employees in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and in particular, the Financial Litigation Unit, for their hard work in successfully recovering money for the benefit of crime victims and the U.S. Treasury,” said U.S. Attorney Alme. “It is critical that victims of crime are made whole, that criminals are divested of their illegal gains and that this office works hard to recover the just debts of our government,” he said. 

“The men and women of the U.S. Attorneys’ offices across the country work diligently, day in and day out, to see that the citizens of our nation receive justice.  The money that we are able to recover for victims and this country as a whole is a direct result of their hard work,” Director James A. Crowell, IV, Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys.

 As a whole, the Justice Department collected nearly $15 billion in civil and criminal actions in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2018.  The $14,839,821,650 in collections in FY 2018 represents nearly seven times the appropriated $2.13 billion ($2,136,750,000) budget for the 94 U.S. Attorneys’ offices.

The U.S. Attorneys’ offices, along with the department’s litigating divisions, are responsible for enforcing and collecting civil and criminal debts owed to federal crime victims and to the U.S. 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 collected to federal and 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, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Internal Revenue Service, the Small Business Administration and the Department of Education.

Additionally, the U.S. Attorneys’ offices, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected $30,272,272 in asset forfeiture actions in FY 2018.  Forfeited assets deposited into the Department of Justice Asset Forfeiture Fund are used to restore funds to crime victims and for a variety of law enforcement purposes.  Forfeited assets include currency and bank accounts, real property and cars purchased with illegal proceeds or used to facilitate crimes, guns held by convicted felons, and computers used for child pornography.

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