U.S. Attorney’s Office Responsible for over $72 Million in Collections and Forfeitures in Fiscal Year 2024

“Obtaining financial justice for victims of crime and United States taxpayers is a high priority for this District,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Richard S. Moultrie, Jr.  “These results for Fiscal Year 2024 reflect our commitment to leverage both criminal and civil enforcements to recuperate money for crime victims and the public through all available legal resources.”

During Fiscal Year 2024, our office collected more than $36 million through the district’s Financial Litigation Program, which is responsible for the collection of civil and criminal debts, fines, and monetary penalties due to victims of crime and the United States.  Specifically, our office obtained over $14 million in restitution, fines and/or assessments imposed against defendants in criminal cases.  Federal law requires that defendants who commit certain crimes pay restitution to the victims of those crimes. Criminal fines and assessments paid by defendants go to the Department of Justice’s Crime Victims Fund, which distributes the funds to federal and state victim compensation and victim assistance programs.

We also collected more than $21 million in affirmative civil enforcement cases.  The United States initiates affirmative civil enforcement cases to recover government money lost to fraud or other misconduct, or to collect fines imposed on individuals and/or corporations for violations of federal health care, safety, or environmental laws and controlled substance regulations, among other laws.

In addition, the district deposited over $36 million into the Department of Justice’s Asset Forfeiture Fund and the Department of Treasury and Department of Homeland Security’s Forfeiture Fund through civil and criminal forfeiture actions handled by the office’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section.  Of the total amount forfeited, over $21 million was forfeited in civil forfeiture cases and more than $14 million was forfeited in criminal cases.  The Department of Justice uses forfeited property to compensate crime victims as well as for a variety of other law enforcement purposes, and shares these proceeds with federal, state and local law enforcement partners.  In Fiscal Year 2024, more than $1 million was returned to crime victims and over $3 million was shared with the district’s law enforcement partners.