Officials Outline Where Money Goes

CRIME DOES PAY, A BIT, INTO FEDERAL COFFERS

Fines And Seized Assets Pay Court Costs And Community Agencies That Help
Crime Victims.

So what does the federal government do with the money it collects from
fines and seized assets?

U.S. Attorney John Brownlee pointed out where it goes in a news
conference Thursday.

In fiscal year 2001, which ended in October, Brownlee's office
collected $8.8 million. That figure is more than twice his office's
operating expenses of about $4 million for 2001.

Fines, special court assessments and bond forfeitures go to a national
account for crime victims. Money from that fund is allocated to all 50
states. Community agencies in Virginia received more than $8.7 million
from that fund in 2001.

Locally, recipients included Total Action Against Poverty, the Women's
Resource Center of the New River Valley and the Roanoke and Roanoke
County victim/witness program.

Assets that federal authorities recover from criminals or criminal
activity are directed differently, Brownlee said. About $585,000 went
back to state and local law enforcement agencies in Virginia for the
past fiscal year, Brownlee said.

Another way the U.S. Attorney's Office recovers funds is by making
defendants pay prosecution costs. However, the office has said in the
past that it does not track prosecution costs on certain cases, such
as Operation Lightning Strike, the federal crackdown on the moonshine
trade.

First Assistant Morgan Scott said the law governing certain criminal
activities, such as tax evasion, provides for the recovery of
prosecution costs.

He did acknowledge that the same method federal authorities use to
determine prosecution costs in those cases - time federal agents spent
on the case, photocopying, etc. - would be the same for other cases.

Asked whether the office could determine the cost of every
prosecution, Scott replied:

"We could, but of course it would take us a lot of time, with little
being done for your tax dollar."