U.S. Attorney's Office For The District Of Nevada Collects Over $8.6 Million In Civil And Criminal Actions In Fiscal Year 2020

LAS VEGAS, Nev. – U.S. Attorney Nicholas A. Trutanich announced today that the District of Nevada collected $8,674,644.74 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year (FY) 2020. Of this amount, $2,837,891.57 was collected in criminal actions and $5,836,753.17 was collected in civil actions.

“These significant collections reflect the dedication and commitment of our Financial Litigation Unit, Asset Forfeiture Unit, and other members of our Civil Division,” said U.S. Attorney Trutanich. “Throughout 2020, we continued to expand our coordination with law enforcement agencies and other collection partners, and we’re honored to be able to contribute these funds for (among other things) victim compensation and victim assistance.”

U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, along with the Department of Justice’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 collected to federal and state victim compensation and victim assistance programs.  

Highlights of the District of Nevada’s FY 2020 collection efforts include:

• Trixa Belloso-Rivas was convicted of conspiracy to file fraudulent tax return information, and ordered to pay $2,000,100 in restitution. In coordination with the U.S. Probation Office, our office became aware that Belloso-Rivas would be receiving a personal injury settlement payment. Our Financial Litigation Unit successfully asserted its restitution judgment and lien against the settlement proceeds, and received over $320,000 towards the outstanding restitution amount. 
• Gareth Long was indicted and pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, having deposited unauthorized checks from more than 375,000 victims into his bank account. At sentencing, the Court ordered a criminal forfeiture money judgment of $11,224,404.31, of which $3,621,523.09 has been forfeited.

Further, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected $6,592,713.24 in asset forfeiture actions in FY 2020. 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.

Overall, the Justice Department collected more than $15.9 billion in civil and criminal actions in FY 2020 ending Sept. 30, 2020. The $15,988,516,670 in collections represents more than five times the approximately $3.2 billion appropriated budget for the 94 U.S. Attorneys’ offices and the main litigating divisions of the Justice Department. The total includes all monies collected as a result of Justice Department-led enforcement actions and negotiated civil settlements. It includes more than $13.5 billion in payments made directly to the Justice Department, and more than $2.4 billion in indirect payments made to other federal agencies, states and other designated recipients.

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