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Press Release
OKLAHOMA CITY – The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Oklahoma collected $11,900,775.79 in civil and criminal actions in the fiscal year that ended on September 30, 2020, announced U.S. Attorney Timothy J. Downing. Of this amount, the office collected $8,954,620.22 in civil actions and $2,946,155.57 in criminal actions.
The U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, along with the Justice Department’s litigating divisions, are responsible for enforcing and collecting civil and criminal debts owed to the United States 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 Justice Department’s Crime Victims Fund, which distributes the funds to federal and state victim compensation and victim assistance programs.
The Justice Department, as a whole, collected more than $15.9 billion in civil and criminal actions in fiscal year (FY) 2020, ending September 30, 2020. The $15,988,516,670 in collections in FY2020 represents more than five times the approximately $3.2 billion appropriated budget for the 94 U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the main litigating divisions of the Justice Department combined in that same period. 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.
"Recovering money for victims in criminal cases and the return of taxpayer funds in civil cases are foundational elements of our pursuit of justice," said U.S. Attorney Downing. "The collections of fiscal year 2020 speak to the tremendous work of the women and men in my office and the dedication of our Financial Litigation Unit."
Highlights of the Western District of Oklahoma’s FY2020 collection efforts include:
Those examples do not include additional recoveries from cases worked jointly with other Justice Department components. For instance, working jointly with colleagues in the Justice Department’s Civil Fraud section, the Western District of Oklahoma recovered $72.3 million in July 2020 to resolve health care kickback claims against Oklahoma Center for Orthopaedic and Multi-Specialty Surgery, a specialty hospital in Oklahoma City, its part-owner and management company, USP OKC, Inc. and USP OKC Manager, Inc., and Southwest Orthopaedic Specialists, PLLC (SOS), an Oklahoma City-based physician group. This is the second largest recovery in Western District of Oklahoma history.
Additionally, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Oklahoma deposited $1,184,508 into the Justice Department’s Asset Forfeiture Fund in FY2020. This amount does not include proceeds from assets forfeited in 2020 that have yet to be sold. Many forfeited assets are returned to victims of crime. When that is not possible, forfeiture proceeds are deposited into a centralized fund and used to assist crime victims across the nation and for a variety of law enforcement purposes.
To download a photo of U.S. Attorney Downing, click here.