California truck driver Mario Nambo Escutia may have been the luckiest man alive, until he reluctantly made a half-million-dollar contribution to fight the federal deficit.
Escutia’s odd case, litigated in western Missouri, recently became one of the highlights of an effort to position the Department of Justice and its 94 U.S. attorney’s offices as solid business investments for a government in need of cash.
In a marked change of tone, federal law enforcement officials here and elsewhere noted recently that their collection of fines, penalties, settlements and restitution are good for the government’s bottom line.
The new message emerged after a season of budget cuts and shutdown, which some thought unfairly hit a department that usually does very well for the federal treasury.
Attorney General Eric Holder led the way recently with a statement highlighting more than $8 billion that the Justice Department collected nationwide in fiscal 2013 in criminal and civil actions during the year.
Read more at The Star: http://www.kansascity.com/2014/01/20/4765139/us-attorneys-build-a-case-for.html