U.S. Attorney’s Office Collects Over $8.9M in Civil and Criminal Actions in Fiscal Year 2023

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – U.S. Attorney Trina A. Higgins announced today that the District of Utah collected $8,945,364.56 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2023. Of this amount, $6,624,427.09 was collected in criminal actions and $2,320,937.47 was collected in civil actions.  

Additionally, the District of Utah worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $30,645,096.14 in cases pursued jointly by these offices. Of this amount, $10,100 was collected in criminal actions and $30,634,996.14 was collected in civil actions.          
     
In September 2023, the District of Utah recovered $300,000 as part of a court ordered restitution from Crystal Huang who was convicted of a $5M securities fraud scheme. See full press release here. 

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 collected to federal and state victim compensation and victim assistance programs. 

Additionally, the U.S. Attorney’s office in the District of Utah, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected $6,191,974 in asset forfeiture actions in FY 2023. 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.