New Haven - U.S. Attorney Deirdre M. Daly today announced that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut collected $792,906,133.31 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2016. Of this amount, $783,664,236.82 was collected in criminal actions and $9,241,896.49 was collected in civil actions.
This year’s recovery is particularly large as a result of a single criminal fine in the amount of $772,290,000 paid by Alstom S.A., a French power and transportation company that has a U.S. subsidiary with headquarters in Connecticut. This Office in collaboration with the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice prosecuted Alstom for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
The Justice Department collected nearly $15.4 billion in civil and criminal actions in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2016. This amount in collections represents more than five times the approximately $2.93 billion of the Department’s combined appropriations for the 94 U.S. Attorney’s offices and the main litigating divisions in that same period.
“This past fiscal year, our Office’s dedicated attorneys and staff helped to recover over $792 million,” said U.S. Attorney Daly. “We are gratified that these funds are returned directly to victims of crime, provide needed services for these victims and fund ongoing federal, state and local law enforcement efforts. One of our primary missions is to seek justice for victims, remove ill-gotten gains from wrongdoers and protect the integrity of important government programs.”
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 financial, health, safety, civil rights and 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.
In addition, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Connecticut, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected $5,375,890 in asset forfeiture actions in FY 2016. 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.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office is charged with enforcing federal criminal laws in Connecticut and representing the federal government in civil litigation. The Office is composed of approximately 63 Assistant U.S. Attorneys and approximately 52 staff members at offices in New Haven, Hartford and Bridgeport.
For more information about the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut, please visit www.justice.gov/ct.