Source: United States Department of Justice News
(DENVER) – U.S. Attorney Cole Finegan announced today that the District of Colorado collected $41,562,706.60 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2022. Of this amount, $4,245,736.91 was collected in criminal actions and $37,316,969.69 was collected in civil actions.
The District of Colorado also worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $1,855,053.04 in cases pursued jointly by these offices. Of this amount, $741,651.73 was collected in criminal actions and $1,113,401.31 was collected in civil actions.
The district’s Asset Recovery Division, led by Chief Tonya Andrews, working with partner agencies, also forfeited $23,307,938.73. 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. In January and August, the District of Colorado recovered over $13 million in COVID-fraud related funds in the Folk and Citi Bank cases, involving individuals who fraudulently applied for and received COVID-relief funds from the Small Business Administration.
“As a result of exceptional work by the Asset Recovery Division and our Civil Division, in coordination with our law enforcement partners, more than $41 million was recovered this year,” said U.S. Attorney Cole Finegan. “These collected funds will assist victims in their recovery process and aid law enforcement as they continue to hold criminals accountable for their crimes.”
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.