Wednesday, March 09, 2011
(photo: Lush Life)
At a time when the federal government could desperately use more revenues to balance the budget, the Department of Justice is doing a lousy job of collecting monies from convicted swindlers.
A review of Justice Department records by USA Today found the government has collected about 2 cents on the dollar—or $660 million out of $30 billion owed by nearly 260 criminals who were ordered to pay $25 million or more in fines and restitution.
Including smaller cases, in 2010 the Justice Department collected $2.84 billion—but that was out of $65 billion owed.
Five years ago, the Justice Department asked Congress to give it the power to freeze assets at the beginning of a case so that defendants could not hide the money they owed before it could be collected…but Congress did not take action.
-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky
Swindlers Rarely Pay Huge, Court-Ordered Fines (by Brad Heath, USA Today)
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