Connecticut U.S. Attorney's Office Recovers $112 Million For U.S. Taxpayers In Fiscal Year 2014

U.S. Attorney Deirdre M. Daly today announced that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut collected $112,723,252.62 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2014.  Of this amount, $95,214,056.17 was collected in criminal actions and $17,509,196.45 was collected in civil actions.
Further, the District of Connecticut, working with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice, collected an additional $174,020,651.35 in cases pursued jointly with these offices.  Of this amount $150,068,294.28 was collected in criminal actions and $23,952,357.07 was collected in civil actions.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced on Wednesday 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 over eight times the appropriated $2.91 billion budget for the 94 U.S. Attorney’s offices and the main litigating divisions 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 this result 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.”

“This past fiscal year, our Office’s dedicated and talented attorneys and staff helped to recover over $286 million which will be returned to the public, and most importantly, to the victims of crime,” said U.S. Attorney Daly.  “For the District of Connecticut, this unprecedented amount of recovered money exceeds our Office’s yearly budget by approximately 13 times.  We are gratified that these funds are returned directly to victims of crime, provide needed services for these victims and fund ongoing federal, state and local law enforcement efforts.  One of our primary missions is to seek justice for victims, remove ill-gotten gains from wrongdoers and protect the integrity of important government programs.”

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.

FY 2014 criminal recoveries in Connecticut include a fine payment of approximately $88 million by Japan-based Marubeni Corporation, which was convicted of participating in a scheme to pay bribes to high-ranking government officials in Indonesia to secure a lucrative power project, and a payment of approximately $9.8 million by New York-based investment bank and broker-dealer Jeffries LLC as part of a non-prosecution agreement relating to Jefferies’ improper trading in residential mortgage-backed securities.  The largest civil recovery in Connecticut occurred last March when Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation of Stratford paid $3.5 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act arising from the submission of inflated costs in the pricing of helicopter spare parts.

The District of Connecticut also participated with the Justice Department and other Districts to recover approximately $150 million from UBS Securities Japan Co. Ltd. and RBS Securities Japan Ltd., both of which were involved in a long-running manipulation of LIBOR bench mark interest rates, and approximately $22 million from Wellcare Health Plans, Inc., as part of a civil settlement to resolve false claims to Medicare and various Medicaid programs.

In addition, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Connecticut, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected $2,227,708 in asset forfeiture actions in FY 2014.  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.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office is charged with enforcing federal criminal laws in Connecticut, and with representing the federal government in civil litigation in the District.  The District is composed of approximately 64 Assistant U.S. Attorneys and approximately 60 staff members at offices in New Haven, Hartford and Bridgeport.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS CONTACT:

U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
Tom Carson
(203) 821-3722
thomas.carson@usdoj.gov