WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch recently announced that, in the 2015 fiscal year, the Justice Department collected $23.1 billion in civil and criminal actions.
The 2015 collections number is more than seven times the $2.93 billion the department appropriated for the 94 U.S. Attorneys’ offices and the main litigating divisions in that time frame. The fiscal year ended in September.
“The Department of Justice is committed to upholding the rule of law, safeguarding taxpayer resources and protecting the American people from exploitation and abuse,” Lynch said. “The collections we are announcing today demonstrate not only the strength of that commitment, but also the significant return on public investment that our actions deliver. I want to thank the prosecutors and trial attorneys who made this achievement possible, and to reiterate our dedication to this ongoing work.”
The total sum, which includes a high portion of affirmative civil enforcement cases, represents all monies collected through Justice Department-led enforcement actions, as well as through negotiated civil settlements.
Financial institutions embody many of the top debt collections. Additionally, the department continued to seek justice on polluters, safeguarding both the environment and the taxpayer.
Major companies and institutions the department collected from include the Bank of America Corp., McGraw Hill Financial Inc., Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC, DaVita Healthcare Partners, Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank AG and the Swiss Bank program.