U.S. Attorney Deborah R. Gilg announced today that the District of Nebraska collected $2,133,876.67 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2015. Of this amount, $1,931,940.95 was collected in criminal actions and $201,935.72 was collected in civil actions.
Additionally, Nebraska worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $267,923.76 in cases pursued jointly with these offices. Of this amount, $19,525.76 was collected in criminal actions and $248,398.00 was collected in civil actions.
Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch announced on Dec. 3, 2015 that the Justice Department collected $23.1 billion in civil and criminal actions in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2015. The more than $23.1 billion in collections in FY 2015 represents more than seven and a half times the approximately $2.93 billion of the Justice Department’s combined appropriations for the 93 U.S. Attorneys’ offices and the main litigating divisions in that same period.
U.S. Attorney Deb Gilg praised the efforts of the Assistant U.S. Attorney’s and contributing agencies for these successes. “It is our responsibility to enforce these collections and to assist in the restitution efforts of crime victims", said Ms. Gilg.
For example, in fiscal year 2015, the District of Nebraska collected a single recovery of $205,428.80 in a case involving criminal fraud perpetrated against the Social Security Administration. It is the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, along with the department’s litigating divisions, that 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 Nebraska, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected $1,282,010.00 in asset forfeiture actions in FY 2015. 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
