Maryland USAO collected $24.7M for year

More than $24.7 million in criminal and civil actions was collected by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland in fiscal 2012, according to a release issued Wednesday.

That number is a sharp dip after back-to-back record-breaking years: The office recovered $126.7 million in fiscal 2011, more than doubling 2010’s record of $60 million.

U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein, however, said in an interview following the release that the numbers “tend to fluctuate.”

“The goal is to collect money owed to the government and deter fraud in the future,” Rosenstein emphasized.

He also noted that two major cases have been resolved since the Justice Department’s fiscal year ended on Sept. 30.

Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. agreed in October to pay $95 million to resolve civil liability arising from the unlawful marketing of certain pharmaceutical products and Coventry Health Care Inc. agreed in November to pay $3 million to the U.S. as part of a non-prosecution agreement.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office brought in almost $11 million in criminal debts in fiscal 2012 that were owed to the government and to federal crime victims, according to the release. This amount includes restitution, criminal fines and felony assessments.

The office also recovered close to $14 million in civil actions, including judgments in civil cases. It collected debts on behalf of several federal agencies, including the departments of Education, Housing and Urban Development and the Health and Human Services, as well as the Internal Revenue Service and the Small Business Administration.

Of the more than $10 million collected in criminal cases, about $7 million was for restitution for federal agencies and other victims, while more than $3.5 million was for criminal fines and other criminal collections.

Asset forfeiture actions led to collection of approximately $4 million, including $834,613 in administrative forfeitures, about $1.6 million in civil forfeitures and about $1.8 million in criminal forfeitures.

More than $2 million was given back to the agencies that were part of the cases that resulted in forfeitures, as part of the Equitable Sharing program.

Forfeited assets are deposited into either the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund or the Department of Treasury Forfeiture Fund and are used to restore funds to crime victims and for a variety of law enforcement purposes.

One of the highest recoveries for fiscal 2012 was Dava Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s February agreement to pay $5.7 million in quarterly installments. The company was accused of misreporting drug prices in order to reduce its Medicaid Drug Rebate obligations.

Rosenstein emphasized that civil cases are usually settled with no admission of wrongdoing.

Nationwide, the U.S. Attorneys’ offices brought in $13.1 billion in criminal and civil actions during fiscal 2012. That was double the $6.5 billion the Justice Department collected in 2011.