District Attorney Kim Ogg Announces Historic Contributions to Area Nonprofits and Agencies Helping the Community

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg has announced a historic increase in contributions to community organizations from the DA’s Asset Forfeiture fund.

The announcement caps a year of increased funding for services like The Children’s Assessment Center, a nonprofit that serves children who have been abused ($760,000); the Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Council ($100,000); and the University of Houston ($63,235). Ogg also released a complete list of all organizations and services that have been helped this year.

“These organizations fill a gap in services to victims of crime and offenders that our justice system does not address, and they are largely crime-prevention programs,” Ogg said. “The money has to be used for law enforcement purposes, and the organizations that we’ve selected all provide some kind of crime-prevention service.”

Asset-forfeiture funds are the money and assets that are seized when a crime is committed. That money and those assets are held in litigation until all parties have notice and go through official proceedings in civil court, which is overseen by a judge.

After those assets have been forfeited according to the law, they are first returned to the victims who lost money, as in a fraud case. The money that is not directly connected to a specific victim is divided up among law enforcement pursuant to long-standing memorandums of understanding. The ways the money can be spent may also be restricted by the law enforcement agency responsible for the arrest, the type of arrest and other factors.

The money that is then left over goes into the DA’s Asset Forfeiture fund, which is also restricted by the law—for example, it cannot be used for salaries. It must be donated to law enforcement agencies or nonprofits aimed at cutting crime and helping victims.

“These are lawful expenditures to great organizations doing very helpful things for our community,” Ogg said. “And I am happy we are increasing the amount we are able to donate this year.”

Since 2020, the year of the pandemic when organizations were inactive, until this year, the DA’s Office donated nearly $1.2 million using asset-forfeiture funds. This year alone, the office has donated $1.4 million of those asset forfeiture funds.

Vivian King, the chief of staff at the DA’s Office, noted that before Ogg’s administration, the office used the money for office expenses.

“DA Ogg’s administration changed that, and now we give the funds back to the community for crime prevention and other authorized uses,” she said. “And by the way, our asset-forfeiture funds are audited every year by external auditors at Whitley Penn, a CPA firm. When they finish their audit, we send our report of income and expenditures to the governor annually in October.”

The most recent report sent to the governor is attached to this news release.

Ogg noted that the Asset Forfeiture Division of the DA’s Office has more than $13 million in the pipeline that will be available to the incoming district attorney, who takes office Jan. 1.

“Like any bank account, money is deposited into it regularly and withdrawn from it regularly, and any inference that we are draining it before the new administration comes in is simply not true,” Ogg said. “If the new administration does not want to donate money on these important causes and organizations, they can just sit on it.”