Summary

In response to a congressional request, GAO examined the Department of Justice's collection of forfeited corporate surety bail bonds in four districts to determine the: (1) number of defendants released on bond prior to trial; (2) number of defendants who failed to appear in court; (3) dollar amount of forfeited bonds; and (4) reasons why the funds remained uncollected.

GAO found that: (1) of the 1,386 cases reviewed, 91 defendants were released on corporate surety bail bonds; (2) 21 defendants failed to appear in court; (3) two of the four districts had bail bonds totalling $442,000; (4) although one of the districts collected 100 percent of the funds owed, the other district collected only 9.7 percent of the funds, leaving $342,500 in uncollected funds; and (5) most of the funds remained uncollected because U.S. attorneys failed to initiate collection actions because of heavy case loads.