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GAO-20-676R 1 (2020-09-30)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaebtu0001 and id is 1 raw text is: G A U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 441 G St. N.W. Washington, DC 20548 September 30, 2020 The Honorable Lindsey Graham Chairman The Honorable Dianne Feinstein Ranking Member Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate The Honorable Jerrold Nadler Chairman The Honorable Jim Jordan Ranking Member Committee on the Judiciary United States House of Representatives Federal Criminal Restitution: Department of Justice Has Ongoing Efforts to Improve Its Oversight of the Collection of Restitution and Tracking the Use of Forfeited Assets The impact of crime on victims often has significant emotional, psychological, physical, social, and financial consequences.1 One of the goals of federal criminal restitution is to restore victims of federal crimes to the position they occupied before the crime was committed. The Department of Justice (DOJ) is responsible for collecting restitution payments from defendants who have been ordered by a federal court to pay restitution as part of their sentences, and has delegated these activities to Financial Litigation Units (FLU) within each of its 94 U.S. Attorney's Offices (USAO).2 In certain cases where the defendant has forfeited his or her assets and no longer has the ability to satisfy a restitution order, the USAO may make a request to the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section to restore forfeited assets to the defendant's victims pursuant to the restitution order. For an overview of the federal restitution process, see enclosure I. The collection of federal criminal restitution has been a longstanding challenge. In 2001, we reported that the amount of uncollected criminal debt-of which restitution is a component-had 1Victims of federal crimes may include individuals, corporations, state and local governments, or federal agencies. 2Prosecutors in DOJ's Criminal Division and the Criminal Divisions of the 94 USAOs represent the United States in criminal matters. For crimes that involve victims, prosecutors are responsible for identifying and notifying victims of the case, determining victim losses in conjunction with the federal agents investigating the case, prosecuting the matter, and negotiating the terms of plea agreements, which may include restitution. The FLUs' collection efforts on restitution debts may include filing liens, identifying debtor assets, garnishing debtor wages, and serving notice of late payments. GAO-20-676R Federal Restitution Page 1

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