Northern District Of California U.S. Attorney’S Office Collects $284,894,493 In Civil And Criminal Actions For U.S. Taxpayers In Fiscal Year 2015

SAN FRANCISCO- Acting U.S. Attorney Brian J. Stretch announced today that the Northern District of California collected $284,894,493 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2015.  Of this amount $255,375,956 was collected in criminal actions and $29,518,537 was collected in civil actions. 

Additionally, the U.S. Attorney’s Office worked with other offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $40,522,904 in cases pursued jointly with these offices.  Of this amount, $32,438 was collected in criminal actions and $40,490,465 was collected in civil actions.         

Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch announced on December 3, 2015, that the Justice Department collected $23 billion in civil and criminal actions in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2015. The more than $23 billion in collections in FY 2015 represents more than seven and a half times the approximately $2.93 billion of the Justice Department’s combined appropriations for the 94 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the main litigating divisions in that same period.

“The Department of Justice is committed to upholding the rule of law, safeguarding taxpayer resources and protecting the American people from exploitation and abuse,” said Attorney General Lynch.  “The collections we are announcing today demonstrate not only the strength of that commitment, but also the significant return on public investment that our actions deliver.  I want to thank the prosecutors and trial attorneys who made this achievement possible, and to reiterate our dedication to this ongoing work.”

“The recovery of hundreds of millions of dollars from criminal and civil defendants by this Office is a testament to the hard work of our Financial Litigation Unit,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Brian J. Stretch.  "Our Office will continue to work tirelessly to recoup victims' losses and to disgorge profits from those who enrich themselves through crime and other violations of federal law.” 

The U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, along with the Justice 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 financial, health, safety, civil rights, and 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.

In addition to the amounts listed above, the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Northern District of California, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected $5,015,667 in asset forfeiture actions in FY 2015.  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.