Feds call for Boston Marathon bomber’s COVID-19 relief payment to go toward $101M he owes victims

Federal officials are calling for convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to contribute all of his remaining funds, including a $1,400 coronavirus relief payment, to the $101 million he owes victims and families.

Acting U.S. Attorney Nathaniel R. Mendell for the District of Massachusetts reportedly filed a motion on Wednesday calling for the courts to allow movement of funds from Tsarnaev’s account. If granted, the motion would allow the Bureau of Prisons to transfer all funds toward Tsarnaev’s outstanding payments.

Tsarnaev was ordered to pay $101,126,627 in criminal restitution and an additional $3,000 fee after his 2015 trial. He paid $2,202 as of Wednesday, prosecutors say.

Tsarnaev has received more than $21,000 during his time as an inmate, including $11,230 from the Office of Federal Defenders of New York over the span of three years and additional deposits from 35 individuals, according to The Associated Press. These individuals include three from New Jersey, Indiana and Maryland.

Only $3,885 reportedly remained in Tsarnaev’s trust account as of Dec. 22, despite the full deposit amounts, including a COVID-19 aid check, adding up to $21,000.

Tsarnaev, “although not making payments to his victims, has made payments to other third-parties,” according to the prosecutors’ motion. “The largest payment the Defendant made from his account was paid to his siblings for items such as ‘gifts,’ ‘support,’ and ‘books.’ These payments totaled $2,000.”

The motion states that Tsarnaev was required to notify the court of payments as they constituted a change in “economic circumstances,” CNN reported.

Tsarnaev was convicted of 30 charges after the 2013 bombing, which left three dead and more than 260 injured. Seventeen people lost one or more limbs in the blast.

The Biden administration has asked the Supreme Court to reinstate Tsarnaev’s death sentence after it was thrown out by a federal appeals court in 2020.

He is currently being held in Florence, Colo., at a maximum security prison.