U.S. Attorney’s Office collects $5.5 million from defendants

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan says it collected more than $5.5 million from federal defendants in the 2013 fiscal year.

The office collected $3,193,153.56 in fines, penalties and victim restitution in criminal cases and $2,352,010.81 in civil actions for a total of $5,545,164.37. It also collected $2,560,915 working with partner agencies and divisions from civil, criminal and administrative forfeiture actions. The 2013 federal fiscal year ended on September 30th.

According to Attorney General Eric Holder, the Justice Department collected about $8.1 billion nationwide in civil and criminal actions in fiscal 2013. That’s nearly three times as much money as the Justice Department spent on the 94 U.S. Attorneys’ offices around the country during the year.

While restitution is paid to the victim, criminal fines and felony assessments are paid to the Justice Department Crime Victims’ Fund, which distributes the funds to state victim compensation and victim assistance programs.