U.S. Attorney's Office Collects Over $3.7 Million in Civil and Criminal Actions for U.S. Taxpayers in Fiscal Year 2019

United States Attorney Ron Parsons announced today that the District of South Dakota collected $3,725,183.70 in criminal and civil actions in FY 2019.  Of this amount, $3,378,146.19 was collected in criminal actions and $347,037.51 was collected in civil actions.  The overall 2019 collections figure reflects a 72% increase over the FY 2018 total of $2,163,413.53. 

As a whole, the Department of Justice collected over 9 billion in civil and criminal actions in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2019. 

Additionally, the District of South Dakota, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected $69,526 in asset forfeiture actions in FY 2019. 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.

“The recovery of these funds is a critical component of our mission,” said U.S. Attorney Parsons.  “The impressive increase in recovered dollars in 2019 is testament to the excellent work of our Civil Division and Financial Litigation Unit under the leadership of our Civil Chief Diana Ryan.  These recovered dollars continue to play a vital role in helping crime victims and preventing losses to the American taxpayer.”

In addition to collecting $3.38 million in FY 2019, the District of South Dakota has already collected $20,250,000 in FY 2020 in a false claims act settlement.  

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 collected to federal and state victim compensation and victim assistance programs.