Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman said in a recent speech that the Department of Justice has returned more than $1.5 billion in forfeited assets to more than 400,000 crime victims since January 2012. 

The sum includes tens of millions of dollars returned to fraud victims of Enron, Qwest Communications, Adelphia Communications, and more.

The Criminal Division's Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section (AFMLS) manages the program. AFMLS, in close coordination with the U.S. Attorneys' offices and federal law enforcement agencies, reviews and rules on petitions for remission submitted by crime victims. 

Between April 2012 and April 2013, for example, the Criminal Division distributed $45 million to approximately 112,200 victims of fraud committed by Qwest Communications International. The funds were forfeited to the United States as a result of the 2007 federal conviction of Qwest's Chief Executive Officer, Joseph Nacchio, for securities fraud. That case stemmed from allegations that Nacchio and Qwest issued false and misleading statements to the public about the company's financial condition in order to meet revenue projections between 1999 and 2002. 

In another case, the Criminal Division released approximately $65 million in forfeited funds to the Securities and Exchange Commission to 128,200 victims of the Enron securities fraud scandal.  The funds were forfeited in several criminal and civil actions handled by the Department of Justice's Enron Task Force, the Fraud Section of the Criminal Division and AFMLS. 

In the late 1990s, Enron was the nation's largest natural gas and electricity marketer.  Beginning in 1997, principals of Enron defrauded Enron's shareholders by using off-balance-sheet transactions with certain Special Purpose Entities the principals controlled.  Enron eventually filed for bankruptcy in 2001.

In a third case, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York entered into settlement agreements with cable television company Adelphia Communications and the Rigas family in April 2005, returning $729 million in forfeited assets to 8,727 victims. Adelphia went bankrupt in 2002 as a result of fraud committed by its principal owners, the Rigas family. 

Other notable cases cited by the Justice Department that have resulted in forfeited assets include:

Warshak/Berkeley Products Fraud

In June 2012, the Criminal Division released $23 million in forfeited funds to 138,426 fraud victims who purchased nutritional supplement from Berkeley Products. In that case, customers who requested a free sample of the Berkeley “sexual enhancement” product were fraudulently billed for additional products they did not order.

ICT Telemarketing Fraud

In December 2012, the Criminal Division distributed approximately $1.3 million to victims of payment processor Integrated Check Technologies. ICT withdrew funds from victims' bank accounts without their authorization in furtherance of a telemarketing fraud scheme.

Approximately $2.9 million was civilly forfeited by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of New York. The Criminal Division approved more than 3,600 petitions with verified losses of $1.3 million. Because the amount recovered through forfeiture exceeded the victims' total losses, each victim received a 100 percent reimbursement, according to Justice Department.

“UniDyn” Securities Fraud

In February 2013, the Criminal Division distributed $2.4 million to victims of a “pump and dump” securities fraud orchestrated by Randy Jenkins and Ira Gentry. Jenkins and Gentry secretly acquired millions of shares of UniDyn on the Over the Counter market and posted messages online falsely touting the company's earning potential.

After having fraudulently “pumped” the value of UniDyn stock, Jenkins and Gentry proceeded to “dump” their holdings on unsuspecting buyers.  Jenkins and Gentry were convicted of multiple counts of securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering, and one count of tax evasion. In related civil actions, the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Arizona obtained forfeitures of cash and real and personal property valued at $3.3 million, returned to 446 individuals.

During the past decade, AFMLS has partnered with federal regulatory agencies, court-appointed receivers, private claim administrators, and private class action cases to successfully return more than $3 billion in forfeited assets to crime victims.