Northern District of Texas U.S. Attorney’s Office Collects $350,706,916.75 in Civil and Criminal Actions for U.S. Taxpayers and Crime Victims in Fiscal Year 2017

DALLAS - U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox announced today that the Northern District of Texas collected $350,706,916.75 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2017. Of this amount, $322,529,436.78 was collected in criminal actions and $28,177,479.97 was collected in civil actions. 

Additionally, the Northern District of Texas worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect another $2,668,204.90 in cases pursued jointly with these offices. Of this amount, $101,752.75 was collected in criminal actions and $2,566,452.15 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. 

“The message in these numbers should be clear,” said U.S. Attorney Nealy Cox. “This office will vigorously pursue all available enforcement remedies to recover assets for victims of crime and the federal treasury. It continues to be a critical aspect of our mission to pursue Justice on behalf of the citizens of the United States.”

Substantial collections in FY 2017 in the Northern District of Texas included:

• $287 million fine paid in the US v. ZTE Corporation terrorism financing case
• $16.3 million in forfeited assets restored to restitution to dozens of victims of wire fraud and money laundering in US v. Jeffrey David Gunselman
• $12.2 million settlement with International Tutoring Services, LLC et al., resolving allegations of improper kickbacks in association with healthcare claims
•  $8.45 million settlement with MB2 Dental resolving allegations of submission of false claims associated with dental services
• $7.4 million in restitution in US v. Richard Ferdinand Toussaint, Jr. for health care fraud
• $1.8 million to dozens of oil and gas investor victims in US v. Brian Polito
• $900,000 in civil damages for disabled workers in the US v. Kenneth Henry and Hill Country Farms forced labor case
• $700,500 in restitution to victims of insurance fraud in US v. Vincent Bazemore
• $645,000 in restitution to a victim of bank fraud in US v. Nick Daryanani
• $415,000 in restitution to a victim of embezzlement in US v. Pamela and Richard Abeyta

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 for the Northern District of Texas, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected $6,578,012 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.

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