LAS VEGAS, Nev. - United States Attorney Nicholas A. Trutanich announced today that the District of Nevada collected $7,219,564 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2018. Of this amount, $4,090,476 was collected in criminal actions and $3,129,088 was collected in civil actions.
The District of Nevada also worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $11,949,827 in cases pursued jointly by these offices.
As a whole, the Justice Department collected nearly $15 billion in civil and criminal actions in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2018. The $14,839,821,650 in collections in fiscal year 2018 is nearly seven times the appropriated $2.13 billion ($2,136,750,000) budget for the 94 U.S. Attorneys’ offices.
“The men and women of the U.S. Attorneys’ offices across the country work diligently, day in and day out, to see that the citizens of our nation receive justice. The money that we are able to recover for victims and this country as a whole is a direct result of their hard work," Director James A. Crowell, IV, Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys.
“We are fully committed to seeking justice for victims of crime, and we will use all available tools and resources to collect restitution and fines," said U.S. Attorney Trutanich. “The more than $7.2 million recovered in fiscal year 2018 by our office is a testament to the efforts by dedicated Assistant U.S. Attorneys and staff, especially the office’s Financial Litigation Unit, who collects funds on behalf of victims and the federal treasury. I thank our staff for their persistence and hard work in the successful recovery of civil and criminal funds."
Major case highlights include:
* Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgeons of Nevada, Inc. paid $1.5 million to resolve allegations related to its potential liability under the False Claims Act. The Las Vegas medical practice, whose principal physician was Dr. Bashir Chowdhry, billed federal healthcare programs, including Medicare and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, for surgical services not actually provided to its cardiac patients, and also billing for more expensive surgical and evaluation and management services than those actually provided to its patients.
* Concord Treatment Center, d/b/a Desert Hope Treatment Center, was audited by the DEA, which found that a Desert Hope employee had ordered and diverted 1,900 dosage units of Schedule II-IV controlled substances, and that Desert Hope had failed to maintain proper records for 12 Schedule II-IV controlled substances. Desert Hope paid a $250,000 civil penalty, surrendered the DEA registration for its internal pharmacy, and retained a subcontractor to manage its internal pharmacy in the future.
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 collected to federal and 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, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Internal Revenue Service, the Small Business Administration and the Department of Education.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
