Former Army civilian sentenced for stealing nearly $109M

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d_marsh

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What a piece of ****.



A Texas woman who was a civilian employee of the U.S. Army at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison for stealing nearly $109 million from a youth development program for children of military families.

Janet Yamanaka Mello, 57, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez in federal court in San Antonio after pleading guilty in March to five counts of mail fraud and five counts of filing a false tax return.

Prosecutors say Mello, as financial manager who handled funding for a youth program at the military base, determined whether grant money was available. She created a fraudulent group called Child Health and Youth Lifelong Development.

“Janet Mello betrayed the trust of the government agency she served and repeatedly lied in an effort to enrich herself,” said U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza for the Western District of Texas.

“Rather than $109 million in federal funds going to the care of military children throughout the world, she selfishly stole that money to buy extravagant houses, more than 80 vehicles and over 1,500 pieces of jewelry," Esparza said.

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your...ntenced-to-15-years-for-stealing-nearly-109m/
 
This is really sad on multiple levels,
Really makes you wonder if the army tracks its spending what so ever?
 
“Rather than $109 million in federal funds going to the care of military children throughout the world, she selfishly stole that money to buy extravagant houses, more than 80 vehicles and over 1,500 pieces of jewelry," Esparza said

Well I guess you could say that she wasn't trying to hide what she was doing.
 
It was a give away program that they farmed out to a civilian. The money was spent for good press, which they got. The military had little concern past the press coverage and the feel good legislators had little interest after they could tell the press that they put the funds on a line item.
 

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