Wyoming U.S. Attorney's Office Collects $5,355,903 in Civil and Criminal Actions for U.S. Taxpayers in Fiscal Year 2015

Cheyenne – U.S. Attorney Christopher A. “Kip” Crofts announced today that the District of Wyoming U.S. Attorney’s Office collected $5,355,903 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2015. Of this amount, $3,801,862 was collected in criminal actions and $1,554,041 was collected in civil actions.

Additionally, the District of Wyoming worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect $272,780 in cases pursued jointly with these offices.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced on December 3rd that the Justice Department collected $23.1 billion in civil and criminal actions in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2015.

The more than $23 billion in collections in FY 2015 represents nearly seven and a half times the appropriated $2.93 billion budget for the 94 U.S. Attorney’s offices and the main litigating divisions in that same period.

“The Department of Justice is committed to upholding the rule of law, safeguarding taxpayer resources, and protecting the American people from exploitation and abuse,” said Attorney General Loretta Lynch. “The collections we are announcing today demonstrate not only the strength of that commitment, but also the significant return on public investment that our actions deliver. I want to thank the prosecutors and trial attorneys who made this achievement possible, and to reiterate our dedication to this ongoing work.”

“I am quite proud of the efforts of the Wyoming U.S. Attorney’s Office in collecting significantly more than the cost of operating the office and for once again providing tremendous value to the American taxpayers,” said U.S. Attorney Crofts.

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 financial, health, safety, civil rights and 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.

The total includes all monies collected as a result of Justice Department-led enforcement actions and negotiated civil settlements. It includes more than $16.2 billion in payments made directly to the Justice Department and more than $6.8 billion in indirect payments made to other federal agencies, states and other designated recipients.