Northern District of Texas U.S. Attorney's Office Collects Nearly $17 Million in Civil and Criminal Actions for U.S. Taxpayers in Fiscal Year 2015

DALLAS — U.S. Attorney John Parker announced today that the Northern District of Texas collected $16,843,994 in criminal and civil actions in the fiscal year (FY) ending Sept. 30, 2015.  Of this amount, $13,517,578 was collected in criminal actions and $3,326,415 was collected in civil actions. 

Additionally, the Northern District of Texas worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $577,658 in cases pursued jointly with these offices.  Of this amount, $152,634 was collected in criminal actions and $425,024 was collected in civil actions.         

Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch also announced today that the Justice Department collected $23.1 billion in civil and criminal actions in FY 2015.  The more than $23.1 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.”

“These numbers illustrate that this office’s vigorous prosecutions, criminal and civil, do not end at sentencing or judgment, said U.S. Attorney Parker.  “We have a continuing obligation to aggressively pursue the recovery of ill-gotten funds for both victims of crime and the federal treasury, and our efforts in this regard will remain robust.”

Substantial collections in the District in FY 2015 included:

• $1.77 million, almost 75% of the total funds embezzled by defendant returned to his former employer within 60 days of sentencing in U.S. v. Daniel Mangini; 

• $1.54 million recovered through garnishment of multiple retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and payoff of lien on homestead in U.S. v. Michael Wolf, a workers’ compensation health care fraud case;

• $780,000 collected through the garnishment of multiple bank accounts, lease payments, and lawsuit settlement proceeds to enforce a $1.7 million civil judgment the U.S. Department of Labor obtained against the defendants on behalf of dozens of disabled men forced to work for years under deplorable conditions in U.S. v. Kenneth Henry and Hill Country Farms;

• $605,000 recovered through foreclosure of liens on real property and garnishment of multiple accounts in U.S. v. Glen McDonald, a counterfeiting and trafficking in contraband case;

• $383,000 in payments toward a $705,000 civil consent judgment in U.S. v. Wilma Aguilera, a False Claims Act case regarding a contract with the Department of Defense; and                                                                                 

• $226,000 recovered through foreclosure of lien on homestead to satisfy restitution imposed against husband and wife in U.S. v. Kenneth and Leah Brown, an insurance fraud conspiracy

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 the Northern District of Texas, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected $12,544,766 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.

# # #