CEDAR RAPIDS – U.S. Attorney Peter E. Deegan, Jr. announced today that the Northern District of Iowa collected $4,488,405.85 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2018. Of this amount, $1,839,911.31 was collected in criminal actions and $2,648,494.54 was collected in civil actions.
Additionally, the Northern District of Iowa worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $3,865,556.19 in civil cases pursued jointly with these offices.
As a whole, the Justice Department collected nearly $15 billion in civil and criminal actions in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2018. The $14,839,821,650 in collections in FY 2018 represents is nearly seven times the appropriated $2.13 billion ($2,136,750,000) budget for the 94 U.S. Attorneys’ offices.
“This office is committed to holding wrongdoers financially responsible for their actions and their crimes,” Deegan said. “Collecting money from those who commit crimes and profit at the expense of others is a vital part of our mission. We will continue to work diligently to collect money for the federal treasury and return money to victims of crime.”
“The men and women of the U.S. Attorneys’ offices across the country work diligently, day in and day out, to see that the citizens of our nation receive justice. The money that we are able to recover for victims and this country as a whole is a direct result of their hard work,” Director James A. Crowell, IV, Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys.
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.