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Press Release
U.S. Attorney Tristram J. Coffin announced today that the District of Vermont collected $8,078,858 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2013. Of this amount, $1,481,573was collected in criminal actions and $6,597,285 was collected in civil actions Additionally, the office collected $4,970,388 in criminal and civil forfeitures, for a total recovery of $13,049,246. The largest part of that amount was $4.3 million recovered last May as part of the settlement relating to tax and health care fraud violations of three former officers of Bennington School, Inc.
Attorney General Eric Holder announced on Thursday that the Justice Department collectedapproximately $8.1 billion in civil and criminal actions in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2013. The more than $8 billion in collections in FY 2013 represents nearly three times the appropriated $2.76 billion budget for the 94 U.S. Attorneys’ offices and the main litigating divisions 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.