— United States Attorney Mark F. Green said the Eastern District of Oklahoma collected $1,367,981 in fiscal year 2012 related to criminal and civil actions.

Of this amount, $708,119 was collected in criminal actions and $659,862 was collected in civil actions, according to a media release.

The office also collected $838,503.73 in criminal and civil forfeitures.

“The U.S. Attorney’s Office is dedicated to protecting the public and recovering funds for the federal treasury and for victims of federal crime,” Green said. “We will continue to hold accountable those that seek to profit from their illegal activities.”

Nationwide, U.S. attorneys’ offices collected $13.1 billion in criminal and civil actions during the fiscal year, more than doubling the $6.5 billion collected in fiscal year 2011.

The U.S. attorneys’ offices and the Justice Department’s litigating divisions are responsible for enforcing and collecting civil and criminal debts owed to the U.S. 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.

Although restitution is paid directly to victims, criminal fines and felony assessments are paid to the department’s Crime Victims’ Fund, which distributes the funds to state victim compensation and victim assistance programs.

The statistics also indicate that $10.12 billion was collected by the U.S. attorneys’ offices in individually and jointly handled civil actions.

The largest civil collections were from affirmative civil enforcement cases, in which the U.S. recovered government money lost to fraud or other misconduct or collected fines imposed on individuals and/or corporations for violations of federal health, safety, civil rights or environmental laws.

Additionally, the U.S. attorneys’ offices, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected $4.389 billion in asset forfeiture actions in the fiscal year. Forfeited assets are deposited into the Justice Department’s Assets Forfeiture Fund and the Treasury Department’s Forfeiture Fund and are used to restore funds to crime victims and for a variety of law enforcement purposes.

Information: www.justice.gov/usao/reading_room/foiamanuals.html.