N.J. US attorney’s office has banner year for money

    New Jersey’s federal law enforcement office continues to rake in the bucks.

    U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman says his office collected a little over $300 million in criminal and civil penalties during fiscal year 2012.

    That’s more than four times the amount collected in 2010.

    The money comes from criminal and civil penalties and forfeitures.

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    New Jersey’s U.S. Attorney’s Office collected about $270 million in civil penalties and $31 million in criminal penalties. The criminal penalties included about $13 million paid by the Louis Berger Group, a New Jersey-based engineering consultant charged with over-billing the government for contracts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

    The money collected is returned to victims or deposited in the U.S. Treasury.

    Nationwide, U.S. attorney’s offices collected $13 billion in fiscal 2012, doubling the amount collected in 2011.

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