International- A judge has granted a request to seize a COVID stimulus check from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, The Wall Street Journal reported.
- Tsarnaev reportedly received a stimulus payment of $1,400 alongside other incomes.
Federal prosecutors are allowed to use the
The order comes after acting US Attorney for Massachusetts Nathaniel Mendell filed a motion on Wednesday to seize all the funds from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's inmate trust account.
Tsarnaev, who is currently serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison in Colorado, was ordered to pay $101.1 million in restitution to victims, as well as a special assessment of $3,000 in 2016.
But the 28-year-old has only paid $2,202 so far, all of which has gone towards the special assessment, the motion said, according to The Journal.
In June, Tsarnaev received a total of $1,400 as part of the
A Department of Justice spokeswoman told The Journal that the bombing victims would receive 100% of the claimed funds.
"It has been a focus … for us to pursue inmate trust balances in appropriate cases," the spokeswoman added."We typically wait until the balance reaches a point where it is appropriate for us to pursue."
The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Tsarnaev was convicted and sentenced to death after he and his brother, Tamerlan, planted pressure-cooker bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon in 2013, killing three people and wounding hundreds more. Tamerlan was killed in a shootout with police three days later.
Tsarnaev's death sentence was overturned in July 2020 by a federal appeals court.