Study: Money Not Collected From Criminals

White-collar criminals have failed to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and restitution while continuing to live in luxury, congressional investigators say.

A Government Accountability Office study released Thursday is the latest in a series pointing to problems with the Justice Department’s attempts to ensure criminals pay their penalties.

The latest investigation looked at five cases that resulted in $568 million in penalties and found only about $40 million actually was paid.

Because these are ongoing cases, the report did not identify the offenders or give much detail about the cases. All were either high-ranking officials of companies or operated their own business. They pleaded guilty in each instance.

The report follows two others by the GAO. In July 2001, the office reported on the growth of criminal debt and pointed out inadequacies in the collection system.

A year ago, a follow-up report found the Justice Department had implemented half the recommendations of the previous inquiry but lagged in coordinating debt-collection efforts with other agencies. The department says it is organizing an interagency joint task force on the matter.

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