"Claw back (chiefly British) Meaning: to get back (as money) by strenuous or forceful means (as taxation)"

In the United States, "clawback," as a single word, has come into use in the last ten or twenty years to refer to situations in which someone is forced to give up money that has already been paid to them. People who work at financial firms sometimes are subject to a "clawback" of bonuses if it turns out that they didn't deserve them. It was used a lot recently during the Madoff scandal. Madoff ran a crooked investment business. It was a Ponzi scheme. He used money put in by new investors to pay out phony investment returns to old investors. It went on for many years. The old investors spent the money. When the scheme was exposed, there was a "clawback:" the old investors were forced to pay back the money they had received.