Stephen R. Wigginton, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced that his office collected $19,428,426.20 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2015.  Of this amount, $9,337,630.59 was collected in criminal actions and $10,090,795.61 was collected in civil actions.  Additionally, the Southern District of Illinois worked with other United States Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $36,117,452.46 in cases pursued jointly with these offices.  Of this amount, $14,468.49 was collected in criminal actions and $36,102,983.97 was collected in civil actions.  As examples, United States Attorney Wigginton highlighted that his office recovered over $7.75 million dollars from a mortgage fraud case in the Carbondale area and a joint collection of over $25 million dollars from fraud in contracts out of Scott Air Force Base.  Individual United States Attorneys’ Offices, along with the department’s litigating divisions, are responsible for enforcing and collecting civil and criminal debts owed to the United States and criminal debts owed to federal crime victims.  The law requires defendants to pay restitution to victims of certain federal crimes who have suffered a physical injury or financial loss.  While restitution is paid to the victim, criminal fines and felony assessments are paid to the department’s Crime Victims’ Fund, which distributes the funds to state victim compensation and victim assistance programs.  Finally, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Illinois, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected $537,950.00 in asset forfeiture actions in FY 2015.  Forfeited assets deposited into the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund are used to restore funds to crime victims and for a variety of law enforcement purposes.