The Department of Justice (DOJ) reported collecting $8 billion in civil and criminal actions in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2013, representing nearly three times the DOJ appropriations of $2.76 billion that pay for the 94 U.S. Attorneys’ offices and its main litigating divisions. The collections include $5.9 billion civil actions that were individually and jointly handled by the U.S. Attorneys. The largest civil collections were from affirmative civil enforcement cases imposed on individuals and/or corporations for violations of federal health, safety, civil rights or environmental laws. In fiscal year 2013, the total amount collected in criminal actions totaled approximately $2.2 billion in restitution, criminal fines, and felony assessments. This included $450 million in criminal fines associated with health care fraud.
As in previous years, the largest collections were related to health care fraud, which accounted for $3.2 billion. Examples highlighted by the DOJ include collection of more than $800 million of its total $1.5 billion settlement with Abbott Laboratories resolving criminal and civil allegations that Abbott illegally promoted drugs. Collections from Amgen were $748 million from its total $762 million settlement (including $14 million in forfeited assets) to settle allegations, including Amgen’s illegal promotion of a drug.
Richard P. Kusserow served as DHHS Inspector General for 11 years. He currently is CEO of Strategic Management Services, LLC (SM), a firm that has assisted more than 3,000 organizations and entities with compliance related matters. The SM sister company, CRC, provides a wide range of compliance tools including sanction-screening.
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Copyright © 2014 Strategic Management Services, LLC. Published with permission.
