The Justice Department’s Consumer Protection Branch recovered $913 million and secured 37 convictions in 2011.

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Tony West

Tony West, who was until recently the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, announced the recovery numbers Monday, marking a 95 percent conviction rate last year.

After gaining approval from Congress in 2010, West went forward with reorganizing the Civil Division to create the branch. Health care fraud and food safety investigations yielded the most in recoveries, West said. The branch recovered $842 million in health care fraud criminal fines and $35 million in civil penalties from perpetrators in food safety cases. It has also played a role in the Civil Division’s response to the financial crisis, putting a focus on mortgage fraud cases, West said in a news release ^[2].

“As scams targeting consumers grow and becomes more sophisticated, those in law enforcement charged with combating such schemes must do the same,”said West, who was recently named ^[3] acting Associate Attorney General, the No. 3 position at the Justice Department.

Since 2009, the division has recovered more than $3.72 billion in consumer protection efforts, according to the news release.