Springfield, Ill. - U.S. Attorney Jim Lewis announced today that the Central District of Illinois collected $30 million for taxpayers in criminal and civil actions in fiscal year 2014. Of this amount, $20,418,986 was collected in criminal actions by the Central District; an additional $13,456 was collected in criminal actions by the District with other Department of Justice entities. In civil actions, the District collected $8,049,414, and another $1,595,242 with other DOJ entities.
Attorney General Eric Holder announced today 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. Attorney’s offices and the main litigating divisions in that same period.
“Every day, the Justice Department’s federal prosecutors and trial attorneys work hard to protect our citizens, to safeguard precious taxpayer resources, and to provide a valuable return on investment to the American people," said Attorney General Holder. “Their diligent efforts are enabling us to achieve justice and recoup losses in virtually every sector of the U.S. economy. And this result shows the fruits of the Justice Department’s tireless work in enforcing federal laws, in protecting the American people from violent crime, national security threats, discrimination, exploitation, and abuse; and in holding financial institutions accountable for their roles in causing the 2008 financial crisis."
“We hold people accountable when the law says that they should be accountable," said U.S. Attorney Lewis. “We collect restitution for victims of crime, we collect damages if there has been fraud in government programs, we collect debts owed to the government, and we protect federal funds and the public treasury. We do our very best to make sure that justice is done."
Examples of significant collection efforts during FY 14 include $17 million in criminal fines paid by a subsidiary of the Archer Daniels Midland Company, Alfred C. Toepfer International Ukraine Ltd. In December 2013, ACTI Ukraine entered a plea of guilty in the Central District of Illinois to one count of conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The company agreed to pay $17 million in criminal fines to resolve charges that it paid bribes through vendors to Ukrainian government officials to obtain value-added tax refunds.
Another example is the $5,364,000 paid by Dowson Farms, Divernon, Ill., in an out-of-court civil settlement in January 2014, to resolve allegations that it conspired to avoid statutory caps on federal farm subsidy payments from 2002 through 2008.
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.
Additionally, the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Central District of Illinois, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected $942,073 in asset forfeiture actions in FY 2014. 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.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
