Northern District of Georgia U.S. Attorney’s Office collects $135,962,250.57 in civil and criminal actions for U.S. taxpayers in fiscal year 2017

ATLANTA – U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak announced that the Northern District of Georgia collected $135,962,250.57 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2017.  Of this amount, $11,426,485.99 was collected in criminal actions and $124,535,764.58 was collected in civil actions. 

Additionally, the Northern District of Georgia worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $196,384,969.10 in cases pursued jointly with these offices.  Of this amount, $16,593.18 was collected in criminal actions and $196,368,375.92 was collected in civil actions.         

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

“Each day we strive, along with our law enforcement partners, to hold wrongdoers financially responsible for their actions in order to make victims whole, and to safeguard taxpayer dollars,” said U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak.

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.

For example, this past year, Northern District of Georgia resolved civil mortgage fraud claims against Prospect Mortgage Company for $4.157 million stemming from Prospect’s failure to adhere to underwriting and quality control requirements on FHA loans.  It resolved a False Claims Act qui tam case against Compassionate Care Hospice for $2.4 million involving alleged kickbacks to its medical director and associate medical directors to induce referrals for hospice services.  And, the office received $5.3 million to resolve allegations against Genesis Healthcare, Inc. for the knowing submission of false claims to Medicare for unnecessary or unskilled outpatient therapy services.

Additionally, the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Northern District of Georgia working with partner agencies and divisions, deposited $154,081,713 obtained as a result of 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.

For further information, please contact the U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office at USAGAN.PressEmails@usdoj.gov or (404) 581-6016.  The Internet address for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia is http://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga