Rhashema Deramus, Theft, Alabama 2012

Montgomery, Alabama – Rhashema Deramus made headlines this past May when $360,420.00 was recovered from her. In August 2012, Deramus pled guilty to theft of government money, fraudulent use of debit cards, and aggravated identity theft all related to filing fraudulent tax returns.

In addition to restitution, Deramus was sentenced to 10 years in prison. This example of a sizable collection in the Middle District of Alabama is a testament to the U.S. Attorney’s Office commitment to protecting the public and recovering funds for the victims of crime as well as every taxpayer.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Alabama collected $2,051,872.00 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2014. Of this amount, $1,276,453.00 was collected in criminal actions and $775,419.00 was collected in civil actions.

Additionally, the Middle District of Alabama worked with other U.S. Attorneys’ offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $132,500.00 in civil action cases pursued jointly with these offices.

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.

The U.S. Attorney’s office in the Middle District of Alabama, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected $899,211.00 in asset forfeiture actions in FY 2014. Forfeited assets deposited into the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund are used to restore funds to crime victims and for a variety of law enforcement purposes.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced yesterday that the Justice Department collected $24.7 billion in civil and criminal actions in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2014. The more than $24 billion in collections in FY 2014 represents nearly eight and a half times the appropriated $2.91 billion budget for the 94 U.S. Attorney’s offices and the main litigating divisions in that same period.

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