U.S. Virgin Islands – United States Attorney Delia L. Smith announced today that the District of the Virgin Islands collected $246,498.00 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2022. Of that amount, $244,898.00 was collected in criminal actions and $1,600.00 was collected in civil actions. Additionally, the District of the Virgin Islands worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $73,600.00 in civil cases pursued jointly by those offices.
“The primary incentive for most federal crimes is money,” stated U.S. Attorney Delia Smith. “By aggressively recovering illegal proceeds from criminals, the Justice Department fights to ensure, in a very literal sense, that crime does not pay. Even more importantly, we work tirelessly to recover money from defendants to make the victim of their crimes whole again.” The U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, along with the Justice Department’s litigating divisions, are responsible for enforcing and collecting civil and criminal debts owed to the United States and 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 victims, 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 the Virgin Islands, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected $820,902.00 in asset forfeiture actions in FY 2022. 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.