Donald S. Boyce, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced Thursday his office collected $10,286,273 in criminal and civil actions in fiscal year 2016.
Of this amount, $1,612,396 was collected in criminal actions and $8,673,877 was collected in civil actions.
The Southern District of Illinois worked with other U.S. attorneys’ offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $805,940 in civil actions.
Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch announced Wednesday that the Justice Department collected nearly $15.4 billion in civil and criminal actions in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. The collections represent more than five times the appropriated $2.93 billion budget for the 94 U.S. attorneys’ offices and the main litigating divisions of the Justice Department combined in that same period.
“Every day, the men and women of the Department of Justice work tirelessly to enforce our laws, ensuring that taxpayer dollars are used properly and that the American people are protected from exploitation and abuse,” Lynch said. “Today’s announcement is a testament to that work, and it makes clear that our actions deliver a significant return on public investment. I want to thank the prosecutors and trial attorneys who made this year’s collections possible, and I want to emphasize that the department remains committed to the well-being of our people and our nation.”
“My office will pursue the collection of monies owed the United States,” Boyce said. “The honest and law-abiding citizens of Southern Illinois deserve no less than our best efforts. As always, no legal avenue to collect debts owed the United States will go unused.”
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 United States and criminal debts owed to federal crime victims. The law requires defendants to pay restitution to victims of 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 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.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Illinois, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected $703,831 in asset forfeiture actions in fiscal year 2016. Forfeited assets deposited into the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund are used to restore funds to crime victims and for law enforcement purposes.