Justice Department Collected Record $24 Billion in Fiscal 2014

By Devlin Barrett 

WASHINGTON--The Justice Department collected more than $24 billion in criminal and civil penalties in the budget year that ended in September, officials said Wednesday, more than triple the amount collected the year before.

The record amount was boosted by hefty fines the government has levied against big Wall Street banks. Much of the money came from J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup, Inc., as those banks resolved multibillion-dollar civil probes into how they packaged and sold mortgage-backed securities leading up to the financial crisis in 2008.

Billions of dollars were also collected in cases the Justice Department brought under the False Claims Act, in which the government recovers money from alleged defrauding of government programs.

The haul includes all money collected as a result of Justice Department enforcement actions and negotiated settlements. Roughly $13.7 billion went directly to the Justice Department. The Department didn't specify where that money will be spent. The remaining $11 billion went to other agencies, states, or other recipients. Some of the money came from cases settled in previous years but collected in the last year.

Justice Department officials said the total figure is the product of hundreds of thousands of disbursements, and couldn't break down specific spending that results from the collections. Some collections, like criminal fines and court-imposed special assessments, go to the Crime Victims Fund. Civil penalties go to various agencies, including the Treasury, and whistleblowers.

This year's collection is just $3 billion shy of the department's projected spending for the same year, and it is also about double the $12 billion taken in by the Justice Department in 2012.

"Every day, the Justice Department's federal prosecutors and trial attorneys work hard to protect our citizens, to safeguard precious taxpayer resources, and to provide a valuable return on investment to the American people," said Attorney General Eric Holder. "Their diligent efforts are enabling us to achieve justice and recoup losses in virtually every sector of the U.S. economy."

Another big case that generated hundreds of millions of dollars was the global investigation of suspected manipulation of the London Interbank Offering Rate, or LIBOR, which is the rate at which banks lend each other money.

Write to Devlin Barrett at [e-mail]

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