United States Attorney Will Thompson announced that the Southern District of West Virginia collected $3,418,522.70 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2022. Of this amount, $1,771,403.30 was collected in criminal actions and $1,647,119.40 was collected in civil actions.
Additionally, the Southern District of West Virginia worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $2,698,400.58 in cases pursued jointly by these offices. Of this amount, $2,372.47 was collected in criminal actions and $2,696,028.11 was collected in civil actions.
In 2022, the Southern District of West Virginia recovered $907,074.64 from Dr. Craig M. Morgan and Eye Consultants of Huntington Inc. to resolve allegations that they submitted false claims to Medicare and Medicaid. In late 2021, the District recovered $500,000 from Henry Schien, Inc., (“HSI”) a wholesale medical distributor based in Long Island, New York, as part of a settlement agreement with the United States to resolve civil penalty claims arising from its improper distribution of opioids and other controlled substances to medical and dental practitioners in five states in violation of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).
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. 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 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 the Southern District of West Virginia, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected $2,255,269 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.
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