U.S. Attorney’s Office for District of R.I. collects $3.3M during FY 2019

PROVIDENCE – The District of Rhode Island collected more than $3.3 million in criminal and civil actions during the 2019 fiscal year, U.S. Attorney for the District of Rhode Island Aaron L. Weisman’s Office announced Thursday.

The collections were virtually split, about $1.6 million each in collections for criminal actions and civil actions that were pursued by the local office.

The Rhode Island District Office worked with other U.S. Attorney’s offices and components of the U.S. Department of Justice to help collect an additional $20.8 million, the vast majority of which was collected in civil actions, the office said.

The local office said it also worked with partner agencies and divisions to collect approximately $1.2 million in asset forfeiture actions this fiscal year.

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This year’s collections include approximately $535,000 that was recovered in a civil action against CVS Health Corp. for its alleged failure to “detect invalid prescriptions for controlled substances at its Rhode Island pharmacies”; and close to $700,000 recovered locally after a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based clothing wholesaler plead guilty in June for being part of a conspiracy that sold more than $20 million worth of Chinese-made counterfeit goods to the U.S. military and related divisions.

“These collection figures reflect our office’s commitment to use all the tools at our disposal to deter illegal conduct and make the government whole when it is victimized by fraud, as well as to recover the financial fruits of crime for the benefit of victims,” said Aaron L. Weisman, U.S. Attorney for the District of Rhode Island, in a statement.

James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com.