DES MOINES, IA - U.S. Attorney Nicholas A. Klinefeldt announced today that the Southern District of Iowa collected $5,607,017.30 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2013. Of this amount, $4,094,883.39 was collected in criminal actions and $1,512,133.91was collected in civil actions.

Additionally, the Southern District of Iowa worked with other U.S. Attorney's Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $4,108,435.35 in civil cases pursued jointly with these offices.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced today that the Justice Department collected approximately $8.1 billion in civil and criminal actions in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2013. The more than $8 billion in collections in FY 2013 represents nearly three times the appropriated $2.76 billion budget for the 94 U.S. Attorney's offices and the main litigating divisions in that same period.

"The Department's enforcement actions help to not only ensure justice is served, but also deliver a valuable return to the taxpayer," said Attorney General Holder. "It is critical that Congress provide the resources  necessary to match the Department's mounting caseload. As these figures show, supporting our federal prosecutors is a sound investment."

The U.S. Attorneys' Offices, along with the department's litigating divisions, are responsible for enforcing and collecting civil and criminal debts owed to the U.S. and criminal debts owed to federal crime victims. The law requires defendants to pay restitution to victims of certain federal crimes who have suffered a physical injury or financial loss. While restitution is paid to the victim, criminal fines and felony assessments are paid to the department's Crime Victims' Fund, which distributes the funds to state victim compensation and victim assistance programs.

The largest civil collections were from affirmative civil enforcement cases, in which the United States recovered government money lost to fraud or other misconduct or collected fines imposed on individuals and/or corporations for violations of federal health, safety, civil rights or environmental laws. In addition, civil debts were collected on behalf of several federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Internal Revenue Service, Small Business Administration and Department of Education. Additionally, the U.S. Attorney's office in the Southern District of Iowa, working with
partner agencies and divisions, collected $2,377,955 in administrative and judicial asset forfeiture actions in FY 2013. Forfeited assets are deposited into the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund and are used to restore funds to crime victims and for a variety of law enforcement purposes. $862,737 in forfeited assets was returned to victims during FY 2013, and $543,406 was equitably shared with state and local law enforcement agencies.

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DES MOINES, IA - Nicholas A. Klinefeldt, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa, announced the conclusion of a multi-agency investigation of internet-related child pornography crimes in the Southern District of Iowa.

The investigation, spearheaded by Homeland Security Investigations-Des Moines, Iowa, centered on the trading of child pornography pictures and videos on peer-to-peer file-sharing networks. Five defendants were charged and convicted in separate prosecutions and were sentenced to a combined total of more than 43 years in prison: Francisco Zayas (Marshalltown), 240 months; Monroe Wardlow (Grinnell), 96 months; Enrique Guzman (Osceola), 80 months; William Trimble, Jr. (Albia), 60 months; and Michael Hanold (Creston), 48 months. After serving their terms of imprisonment, each defendant will be required to serve a term of supervised release of at least 5 years and to register as a sex offender.

Other law enforcement agencies assisting with the operation included the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, and the Iowa police departments of Albia, Creston, Grinnell, Marshalltown, and Osceola. The cases were prosecuted by the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Iowa as part of its "Project Safe Childhood" initiative.

DAVENPORT, IA - On November 6, 2013, McFerry Tolbert, Jr., age 30, was sentenced by United States District Judge John A. Jarvey to 240 months in prison for conspiracy to distribute, and possess with intent to distribute,  280 grams or more of cocaine base, announced United States Attorney Nicholas A. Klinefeldt. Tolbert was also  ordered to serve five years of supervised release following the imprisonment, and to pay $100 towards the Crime  Victims Fund.

Beginning in approximately June 2012 and continuing until about November 27, 2012, Tolbert purchased cocaine base, also known as "crack," and conspired with others to redistribute the drug in the Davenport, Iowa area. As part of the investigation, Davenport police conducted several controlled purchases of cocaine base from Tolbert in October and November 2012. Law enforcement officers also executed a search warrant at Tolbert's Davenport residence and seized, among other items, cocaine base and a digital scale. When Tolbert was arrested he had 14 individually packaged pieces of cocaine base on his person.

This case was investigated by the Davenport, Iowa, Police Department, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Iowa Department of Public Safety - Division of Narcotics Enforcement. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Iowa.

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