East Texas

More than $170,000 in federal tax refund checks has been seized so far this year in East Texas to pay outstanding criminal debts.

U.S. Attorney Rebecca Gregory announced Thursday that, since January, the Eastern District of Texas has seized the refund checks, including economic stimulus checks and other federal benefits pursuant to a federal program to capture such refunds to pay fines and restitution owed to victims.

This year, federal benefits have been collected by more than 140 convicted felons, including one for more than $26,000, according to a prepared statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The average amount collected was $1,125.

The Treasury Offset Program (TOP) is a federally managed program to ensure that convicted criminals don’t benefit from tax refunds and other federal payments to the detriment of debts owed the federal government or victims of crime.

Even convicted felons in prison who owe restitution and fines would receive their tax refunds without this program.

Locally, the program is managed by the Financial Litigation Unit in the Tyler office of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Nationally, more than $6.23 million has been collected this year.