U.S. Attorney’s Office Collects $6,638,788.11 from Civil and Criminal Actions in Fiscal Year 2023
News Release from U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Hawaii, Tuesday, March 5, 2024
HONOLULU – U.S. Attorney Clare E. Connors announced today that the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Hawaii collected $6,638,788.11 from criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2023. Of this amount, $6,360,465.69 was collected in criminal actions and $278,322.42 was collected in civil actions.
The Hawaii U.S. Attorney’s Office also worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $425,476.84 in civil cases pursued jointly by these offices.
“The imposition of financial penalties and restitution obligations are critical to achieving justice for violations of our criminal and civil laws,” said U.S. Attorney Clare E. Connors. “Obtaining money in satisfaction of a criminal sentence or civil judgment is particularly important and remains one of our foremost objectives.”
In 2023, the District of Hawaii recovered over $3.2 million through a bankruptcy proceeding involving George Lindell, who in May 2015, was convicted after a 27-day trial of operating an extensive Ponzi scheme in which 166 individuals were induced to invest over $26 million dollars. During 2023, the United States also recovered over $109,000 through the sentence imposed on Garrett Okubo, a physical therapist convicted in 2019 of submitting false claims to obtain payment for physical therapy services to TRICARE, Medicare, Medicaid, and HMSA.
The U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, along with the department’s litigating divisions, are responsible for enforcing and collecting civil and criminal debts owed to the U.S. as well as criminal debts owed to federal crime victims. The law requires defendants to pay restitution to victims of certain federal crimes who have suffered a physical injury or financial loss. While restitution is paid to the victim, criminal fines and felony assessments are paid to the department’s Crime Victims Fund, which distributes the funds collected to federal and state victim compensation and victim assistance programs.
Additionally, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Hawaii, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected $1,000,765 in asset forfeiture actions in FY 2023. Forfeited assets deposited into the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund are used to restore funds to crime victims and for a variety of law enforcement purposes.
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