U.S. Attorney’s Office Collects $3,332,723.69 in Civil and Criminal Actions for U.S. Taxpayers in Fiscal Year 2017

Portland, Maine:  United States Attorney Halsey B. Frank announced today that the District of Maine collected $3,332,723.69 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year (FY) 2017.  Of this amount, $2,755,431.76 was collected in criminal actions and $577,291.93 was collected in civil actions. 

Additionally, the District of Maine worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $283,936.46 in cases pursued jointly with these offices. Of this amount, $6,000 was collected in criminal actions and $277,936.46 was collected in civil actions.         

Overall, the Justice Department collected just over $15 billion in civil and criminal actions in the FY 2017 ending September 30, 2017. 

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 Maine, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected $915,194 in asset forfeiture actions in FY 2017.  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.