ATLANTA – U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan announced that the Northern District of Georgia was responsible for collections and forfeitures of over $31 million in Fiscal Year 2023.
“This district maintains an unwavering commitment to securing financial justice for victims of crime and United States taxpayers,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan. “As this prior fiscal year’s results reflect, this district will vigorously pursue the recovery of money for crime victims and the public through all available legal means, whether by collecting criminal and civil monetary penalties, civilly pursuing those who seek to take unlawful advantage of federal agencies and programs or identifying and forfeiting ill-gotten gains.”
Our office collected more than $22 million through the district’s Financial Litigation Program, which is responsible for the collection of civil and criminal debts, fines, and monetary penalties due to victims of crime and the United States. Specifically, our office obtained $8.4 million in restitution, fines and/or assessments imposed against defendants in criminal cases. Federal law requires that defendants who commit certain crimes pay restitution to the victims of those crimes. Criminal fines and assessments paid by defendants go to the Department of Justice’s Crime Victims Fund, which distributes the funds to federal and state victim compensation and victim assistance programs.
We also collected $13.7 million in affirmative civil enforcement cases. The United States initiates affirmative civil enforcement cases to recover government money lost to fraud or other misconduct, or to collect fines imposed on individuals and/or corporations for violations of federal health care, safety, or environmental laws and controlled substance regulations, among other laws.
In addition, the district deposited over $9.4 million dollars into the Department of Justice’s Asset Forfeiture Fund and Treasury Forfeiture Fund through civil…
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