SAN FRANCISCO - United States Attorney Melinda Haag announced today that the Northern District of California collected $327,128,651.76 in criminal and civil actions in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2014 - the fifth highest amount of money collected by a U.S. Attorney’s Office in the country. Of this amount, $321,472,322.57 was collected in criminal actions and $5,656,329.19 was collected in civil actions.
Additionally, the Northern District of California worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $1,591,862,774.04 in cases pursued jointly with these offices. Of this amount, $3,717.65 was collected in criminal actions and $1,591,859,056.39 was collected in civil actions.
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 of the Justice Department combined 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 it 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."
“Last year our office collected millions of dollars from financial institutions and others that had defrauded and committed crimes against the federal government as well as private individuals and institutions," said United Sates Attorney Melinda Haag. “This office’s Financial Litigation Unit works relentlessly to ensure that those found accountable make their victims whole."
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.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
