U.S. ATTORNEY COLLECTS $4.4 MILLION IN FISCAL YEAR

That total doesn't include the value of 82 gold bars seized from the
property of the mother of money-launderer Stephen Saccoccia.

The U.S. Attorney's office in Providence collected about $4.4 million in
fines and criminal assets and through civil litigation during the fiscal
year that ended Sept. 30, according to U.S. Attorney Sheldon Whitehouse.

The collections include material seized during the prosecution of criminal
cases. The figure also includes court-ordered restitution and defaulted
student, housing and small-business loans.

Altogether, the money collected makes up about $1 million more than the cost
of operating the U.S. Attorney's office, Whitehouse said. ``That's a net
gain for the taxpayers, something we have accomplished year in and year
out,'' he said.

Of the criminal collections, which totaled $1.2 million, a large part of the
money came from the case against Felix Gammella, a former Pawtucket man
sentenced to prison last January after he pleaded guilty to charges of
running a marijuana-smuggling ring.

The federal government had seized about $1 million in assets from Gammella
and his wife, including nearly $500,000 kept in a Montreal safe-deposit box
and houses in Arizona and Vermont.

The largest property seizure of the year is not included in the totals,
however. In March, the FBI took 82 gold bars -- worth $2.1 million -- that
had been buried in Cranston in the backyard and the cellar of the mother of
an imprisoned money launderer, Stephen Saccoccia.

According to Whitehouse, the federal court has not issued a final forfeiture
order regarding the bars of gold.

Among the largest of the civil collections was $500,000 from 11 Rhode Island
hospitals that had billed Medicare separately for certain preadmission
procedures that Medicare pays as part of a patient's in-hospital care.

The money collected and the assets seized by the U.S. Attorney's office go
to a variety of uses, according to Whitehouse.

The fines and assessments go to the federal Crime Victim Fund, which awards
grants to states to compensate victims of crimes.

Money collected for civil debts and penalties (such as the civil collections
from the hospitals) goes to the federal agency to which the money was owed.

Some of the money goes to Rhode Island agencies. Up to 80 percent of
forfeited assets (such as the money seized from the Gammellas) is
distributed among state and law-enforcement agencies that take part in the
investigations that result in forfeitures.

Copyright © 1998 The Providence Journal Company