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Attorney's office collects nearly $25 million for Georgia taxpayers
Seal of the United States Department of Justice.svg

U.S. Attorney Bobby L. Christine announced that the Southern District of Georgia recovered more than $24.5 million in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2018. The total is nearly four times the $6.25 million appropriated for operation of the Southern District office for the year.

Of this total amount, $5.2 million was recovered in criminal actions, $14.6 million was recovered in civil actions and $4.7 million was recovered from defendants through the asset forfeiture process.

Included within this total is $9.1 million that was recovered from cases jointly pursued by the Southern District of Georgia, other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and other components of the Department of Justice.

As a whole, the Justice Department collected nearly $15 billion in civil and criminal actions in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2018. The $14.8 billion in collections in FY 2018 is nearly seven times the appropriated $2.13 billion budget for the 94 U.S. Attorneys’ offices.  

Examples of significant collections during the year include:

  • In May 2018, in the nation’s largest settlement of its kind involving allegations of drug diversion at a hospital, Effingham Health System agreed to pay $4.1 million to resolve allegations that the company failed to guard against theft and loss of controlled substances; 
  • In April 2018, the Southern District recovered $245,228 from defendant Brandon Sapp, the convicted leader of a WIC and Food Stamp fraud ring; and,
  • In August 2018, the Southern District recovered $82,761 from defendant Michael Brian Anderson, a former Savannah shrimper who was convicted of money laundering and defrauding U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), by filing false claims under the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000.

 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 United States 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.


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