Northern District of Iowa U.S. Attorney’s Office collects over $14,000,000 for U.S. taxpayers in 2020

CEDAR RAPIDS – U.S. Attorney Peter E. Deegan, Jr. announced today that the Northern District of Iowa collected $14,652,603.88 in civil and criminal actions in Fiscal Year 2020.  Of this amount, $13,388,019.63 was collected in civil actions and $1,264,584.25 was collected in criminal actions. 

The Justice Department collected more than $15.9 billion in civil and criminal actions in fiscal year (FY) 2020 ending Sept. 30, 2020. The $15,988,516,670 in collections in FY 2020 represents more than five times the approximately $3.2 billion appropriated budget for the 94 U.S. Attorneys’ offices and the main litigating divisions of the Justice Department combined in that same period. The total includes all monies collected as a result of Justice Department-led enforcement actions and negotiated civil settlements.  It includes more than $13.5 billion in payments made directly to the Justice Department, and more than $2.4 billion in indirect payments made to other federal agencies, states and other designated recipients.

“Collecting money on behalf of taxpayers and crime victims is a vital part of the U.S. Attorney’s Office mission,” U.S. Attorney Peter E. Deegan, Jr. said.  “Each year, these collections far exceed the total amount of our office’s budget and result from the hard work of many individuals in our office.”

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.