South Dakota U.S. Attorney's Office Collects Over $3.6 Million In Fiscal Year 2014

United States Attorney Brendan V. Johnson announced that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Dakota collected over $3.6 million in Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 from civil and criminal actions.  Of this amount, over $2.3 million was collected in criminal actions and over $729,000 was collected in civil actions.

Additionally, the District of South Dakota worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $625,000 in civil actions that were pursued jointly.

“Our collection figures represent an important component of the work done in the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” said Johnson.  “In addition to protecting the public through prosecutions, we also collect money to help the victims of these crimes and recoup losses to the American taxpayer.”

Nationally, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Justice Department collected $24.7 billion in civil and criminal actions in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2014.  The 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. Attorneys’ offices and the main litigating divisions of the Justice Department combined in that same period.

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.