U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom has announced that the District of Kansas collected $12.1 million in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2013. Of this amount, $6.1 million was collected in criminal actions and $6 million was collected in civil actions.
Additionally, the District of Kansas worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $2.8 million in cases pursued jointly with these offices in civil actions.
Attorney General Eric Holder announced on Thursday that the Justice Department collected more than $8 billion in civil and criminal actions in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2013. The more than $8 billion in collections in FY 2013 represents nearly three times the appropriated $2.76 billion budget for the 94 U.S. Attorney’s offices and the main litigating divisions in that same period.
“In Kansas, we are fighting to recover funds for victims of federal crimes and the federal treasury,” said U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom. “We are holding accountable offenders who try to make a profit from violating the law.”
“The Department’s enforcement actions help to not only ensure justice is served, but also deliver a valuable return to the taxpayer,” said Attorney General Holder. “It is critical that Congress provide the resources necessary to match the Department’s mounting caseload. As these figures show, supporting our federal prosecutors is a sound investment.”
For example: In Fiscal Year 2013, the District of Kansas collected more than $853,000 in U.S. v. Hutchinson Regional Medical Center, Inc., as a result of a settlement reached for allegations that the hospital submitted false claims to the Medicare Program.
In addition, more than $1.7 million was collected in U.S. v. Coffeyville Resources Refining & Marketing and more than $1.6 million in U.S. v. Ash Grove Cement, both amounts representing civil penalties in violation of the Environmental Protection Act.
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 District of Kansas, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected more than $5.2 million in asset forfeiture actions in FY 2013. Forfeited assets are deposited into the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund and are used to restore funds to crime victims and for a variety of law enforcement purposes.