The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced today that Special Master Mary Patrice Brown has authorized payments totaling $1.035 billion from the U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund (the Fund) to nearly 19,000 victims of state-sponsored terrorism.
According to the DOJ, the Fund was established by Congress and is administered by the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section under the leadership of the Special Master.
Since its creation, the Fund has distributed more than $6 billion to victims and their families across four rounds of distributions and one round of lump sum catch-up payments, the department explained.
With the latest distribution, total authorized payments now exceed $7 billion, the DOJ added.
According to the department, the $1.035 billion announced today will be evenly split, with $517.5 million allocated for 9/11-related claimants and $517.5 million for non-9/11-related claimants.
The DOJ stated that funding for the distributions comes from congressional appropriations, including an initial $1 billion and additional appropriations for lump sum payments.