U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington Collects Substantial Sum of $61,950,459 for Victims of Crime and for the U.S. Taxpayers in Fiscal Year 2020 | USAO-EDWA

By On Jan 5, 2021

Spokane, Washington – William D. Hyslop, United States attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, announced today that his office has withdrawn $ 61,950,459 from crime victims and $ 59,346,578 in fiscal 2020 – Dollars raised in civil lawsuits.

US attorney Hyslop said: “This is a substantial sum of which we are extremely proud. It is great news for the residents of this district and this country. This is equally good evidence of the diligent work of the attorneys and attorneys at the US Attorney General for the Eastern District of Washington in accomplishing this. “

Hyslop continued, “This sum represents two types of funds. First, when a person is convicted of a crime by the court, we ask the court to order the convicted criminal to be reimbursed to those who have been physically or financially injured by the crime. We are doing everything we can to protect the rights of crime victims and to raise these funds to ensure that they are financially restored where possible. Because of our added emphasis, we’ve successfully collected more refunds year after year since 2017, resulting in an increase of nearly 100% in just four years. The second part presents collections in which civil fraud is punished and civil financial obligations are fulfilled. “

Examples of some successful criminal and civilian collections in the Eastern District of Washington in FY2020 include:

• 57.5 million US $ US paid by Bechtel National Inc., a contractor to the Department of Energy at the Hanford Nuclear Power Plant, to resolve civil fraud cases;

• Full reimbursement of reimbursement to crime victims in several Project Safe Childhood cases (child exploitation and child pornography), e.g. B. USA v Dale Black for $ 400,000 and USA v Jeffrey Jon Franklin for $ 11,000;

• Reclaiming more than $ 930,000 in criminal reimbursement for the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration in connection with crime taxation and theft of state funds; and

• US $ 1.1 million was reclaimed for the United States Forestry Service and the United States Department of the Interior following an affirmative prosecution from the Twisp River Fire on August 19, 2015 in Okanogan County.

At the national level, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) raised more than $ 15.9 billion in civil and criminal justice in fiscal 2020, which ended September 30, 2020. The nearly $ 16 billion collected in fiscal 2020 is more than five times the roughly $ 3.2 billion budget allocated to the DOJ’s 94 U.S. law firms and its key litigation departments over the same period. The total includes all funds raised as a result of Justice Department-led enforcement actions and negotiated civil settlements. It includes payments of more than $ 13.5 billion made directly to the Department of Justice and indirect payments of more than $ 2.4 billion to other federal agencies, states, and other designated recipients.

The US law firms, along with the DOJ’s litigation departments, are responsible for the enforcement and recovery of civil and criminal debts to the US and criminal debts to victims of federal crimes. The law requires defendants to pay compensation to victims of certain federal crimes who have suffered personal injury or financial loss. While a refund is being paid to the victim, fines and offenses are paid to the ministry’s Crime Victims Fund, which distributes the funds raised to federal and state victim compensation and victim assistance programs.

The largest civil law collections came from affirmative law enforcement cases in which the United States recovered government money lost through fraud or other misconduct, or fined individuals and / or companies for violating federal health, safety, civil rights, or environmental laws . In addition, civil debt was collected on behalf of several federal agencies, including the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Internal Revenue Service, the Small Business Administration, and the Department of Education.