U.S. Attorney Roger B. Handberg announced that the Middle District of Florida (MDFL) collected $168,330,189 related to criminal and civil matters in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2022 (FY 2022). Of that amount, $103,089,821 represents total collections in criminal and civil actions. Included in this amount is $43,048,067 recovered in its locally handled cases; $17,769,638 in criminal cases and $25,278,429.11 in civil cases. 

The MDFL’s Civil Division, led by Civil Chief Randy Harwell, recovered a total of $85,181,948 on behalf of federal agencies and programs in affirmative civil enforcement cases during the last fiscal year. This amount has two components. In addition to its efforts in local civil cases noted above, the district’s Civil Division also joins forces with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and with the Department of Justice Civil Frauds Section to address fraud schemes and illegal practices extending beyond district boundaries. The MDFL’s Civil Division recovered an additional $59,903,519.32 in these jointly handled cases. 

Additionally, the district’s Asset Recovery Division, led by Chief Anita Cream, working with partner agencies, forfeited $65,240,368 from criminal and civil asset forfeiture actions completed in fiscal year 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. For instance, in FY 2022, more than $14 million forfeited in the MDFL in this and prior years was returned to victims of the criminal offenses upon which the forfeitures were based, and approximately $3 million was shared with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. The district anticipates that the vast majority of the more than $65 million forfeited in FY 2022 will be returned to crime victims.

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