Civilian Army worker stole $100 million by billing the government for a fake outreach program

[Ark]

Army civilian accused of bilking $100 million to fund luxury lifestyle

An Army civilian allegedly stole $100 million in military funds in order to fund a lavish lifestyle.

www.armytimes.com

An Army civilian in Texas is facing significant prison time for an alleged scheme in which prosecutors say she stole $100 million in military funds in order to fund a lavish lifestyle.

Janet Yamanaka Mello, 57, a civilian financial program manager at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, received a 10-count indictment by a federal grand jury in December over the alleged actions. If she fails to reach a plea deal by Jan. 19, Mello would face a jury selection and trial, according to court records.

Mello allegedly used the stolen funds to amass a real estate portfolio of 31 properties, a fleet of 78 vehicles, more than $18 million in various bank accounts linked to her, and a jewelry collection, according to court records.

Some of the luxury listings include a roughly $3.1 million, eight-bedroom, 55-car garage, 58-acre estate in Maryland and an approximately $1.1 million home in San Antonio, Texas.

It’s unclear at this time whether those properties were used to store Mello’s alleged Jay Leno-esque collection of classic, expensive cars and motorcycles.

Among the alleged fleet of vehicles — many listed in court records currently cost between $100,000 and $200,000 — were a 1967 Chevrolet Camaro SS, a ‘66 Chevrolet Chevelle SS, a ‘66 Ford Mustang, a ‘54 Chevrolet Corvette and a 1935 Plymouth Sedan.

Mello must forfeit all of those assets and any other proceeds and property she allegedly obtained through criminal means.

According to the indictment, the Army civilian allegedly carried out the scheme by regularly submitting fraudulent paperwork as early as December 2016 that indicated a bogus business she controlled, named Child Health and Youth Lifelong Development, was entitled to money from the 4-H Military Partnership Grant program, a collaboration “to provide meaningful youth development opportunities for military-connected children.”

Mello allegedly “played on the trust she had developed over the years with her supervisors and co-workers to secure the necessary approvals,” according to the indictment. She is also alleged to have falsified the digital signature of one of her supervisors multiple times.

Mello is charged with five counts of mail fraud, four counts of engaging in a monetary transaction over $10,000 using criminally derived proceeds and one count of aggravated identity theft, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas.

If convicted, Mello faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each fraud charge, up to 10 years in prison for each spending statute charge and a mandatory minimum of two years in prison for the aggravated identity theft charge.

“It is very early in the case and I expect the evidence to be extensive. We will need time to review it. I do not believe that the case will be resolved by those initial dates,” defense lawyer Albert Flores told The Messenger. Flores did not immediately respond to Military Times’ request for comment.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas declined to comment as the case remains open.

This is wild and was going on since 2016. This lady bought huge mansions all over the country and a huge collection of cars by forging signatures to pay her own company to provide youth outreach services consisting of zero youths and zero outreach.

What's especially noteworthy is that the Army did not catch this scheme on the payment side. The IRS caught her on the spending side, and only after six years.

What possible "youth outreach" could cost $20 million a year, and how does nobody do even a cursory check that it, you know, exists? Maybe this is why the Pentagon has no idea where trillions of dollars went.

 

[wtburnette]

My concern is the number of scumbags running these types of scams that aren't caught. Cause you know they're out there.

 

[MCgrease08]

At least she had good taste in cars.

 

[phylodog]

Sure glad we decided to abandon the limitations on government and have continuously expanded it to allow for critical programs like this one. We're all so much better off now that we've invested trillions of dollars in America's youth. The future looks far too bright.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Why didn’t they catch it?

Probably assumed it was another black ops program sending guns and who knows what else to people/countries we really shouldn’t.

 

[phylodog]

Why didn’t they catch it?

Probably assumed it was another black ops program sending guns and who knows what else to people/countries we really shouldn’t.

Like finding a needle in a haystack. When our government burns through trillions of dollars every fifteen minutes a hundred million here or there doesn't register.

It's fine. Nothing to be concerned about.

 

[stocknup]

At least she had good taste in cars.

From the article :
Among the alleged fleet of vehicles — many listed in court records currently cost between $100,000 and $200,000 — were a 1967 Chevrolet Camaro SS, a ‘66 Chevrolet Chevelle SS, a ‘66 Ford Mustang, a ‘54 Chevrolet Corvette and a 1935 Plymouth Sedan.

Looks like they forgot to mention the box of Classified Documents found next to the Corvette ..........

 

[Ark]

My concern is the number of scumbags running these types of scams that aren't caught. Cause you know they're out there.

Exactly. Is there someone else out there funneling the money overseas and spending it somewhere they won't get caught by the IRS? Not everyone is dumb enough to buy mansions and cars in the US.

 

[printcraft]

Exactly. Is there someone else out there funneling the money overseas and spending it somewhere they won't get caught by the IRS? Not everyone is dumb enough to buy mansions and cars in the US.

Only $100 million?

The "green energy" grifters are sucking that monthly... weekly.

 

[phylodog]

My concern is the number of scumbags running these types of scams that aren't caught. Cause you know they're out there.

Probably only around 97% of these types of "public outreach" programs are nothing but wealth redistribution wrapped up in package intended for suckers. Government should have zero involvement in this type nonsense. One need look no further than Indy's "Concerned Clergy" for evidence.

You'll never find one with any expectations of success.

 

[wtburnette]

The same as all Left wing policies. Wrap it in some compassionate language and steal money like there's no tomorrow, all while not improving the supposed beneficiaries in any way.

 

[Leadeye]

A woman, running a non profit, claiming to assist young people. How many of those are out there? How many are fakes, or partial fakes?

Anybody wanting to audit this scheme would have been denounced as racist at best, as it's the most common, and first thrown stone. They really should take a hard look at people who signed off on this plan. With something this big she almost had to have been spreading the wealth.

Always follow the money

 

[phylodog]

I suspect there are too many in government who are too busy stealing to notice someone else doing it.

 

[Shadow01]

Why is a youth outreach program being funded with military funding?

 

[patience0830]

Why is a youth outreach program being funded with military funding?

Call it recruiting?

 

[phylodog]

Why is a youth outreach program being funded with military funding?

Because that's the last place a logical person would look for such nonsense.

 

[SnoopLoggyDog]

Part of my additional duties as a civilian supervisor in the USAF, was Accountable Officer for five different individuals who were authorized to purchase items using government issued credit cards. Purchases could only be made from approved vendors. I had to pre-approve each purchase and log it all into an online tracking database. We got audited twice a year by our Contracting office. We also had quarterly timecard audits looking for timecard fraud.

We had a few small incidents over the years where people mis-appropriated a very small amount of $$$. Usually less than $2k. They always got caught and it always ended in disciplinary action.

This lady in the article spent more money on herself than what a typical base spends on operations & maintenance of their vehicle fleet. I cannot fathom how she was not caught sooner?

 

[Twangbanger]

Why is a youth outreach program being funded with military funding?

Because it benefits "military-connected families," the most sacred of sacred cows because we are true suckers for the U.S. military's capability to "do good." The people in unform often get paid sh!t. Because even the most casual observer can see the clear disconnect between calling Military people "heroes" yet allowing them to live in sh!t circumstances, Uncle Sam pulls a "Wal-Mart Corporate HR" move and funds & provides employees with instruction how to "access services" ranging from government welfare to private charity, designed to alleviate their hardships with life-changing impacts like "Donate a Toy for Christmas" and college funds for the children of soldiers who got blown to pieces fighting Political Wars of Choice. How can you possibly be against _that_?

This lady understood the assignment. Unfortunately she learned the "surface" lessons of the Clinton Global Initiative, but not the deeper ones. She was smart enough to position herself on the civilian side of this racket, but just dumb enough to chock it all into easily-trackable U.S.-based assets you can see from outer space. If she had resigned her Government job to get around the DFAR regs, and taken Bill and Hillary's instruction and positioned herself as an "Employee" of this charity, and paid taxes on her income from it, she could have evaded detection indefinitely. Her apparent desire to stay on Uncle Sam's payroll and collect her Federal pension, combined with her excellent taste in assets, is what got her.

Imagine how many similar swindles there are for overseas "military-connected" efforts where the IRS can't reach? Building "schools for Afghan women & girls?" How many "schools" got built? And how could you even check, now that the Taliban has bulldozed the place?

The mind boggles.

 

[phylodog]

I cannot fathom how she was not caught sooner?

That's our government in action. That's why they burn through a trillion dollars every few days now. It is so large, so bloated, so incredibly complex and compartmentalized that someone pissing away tens of millions of dollars goes unnoticed for years.

When was the last time the pentagon passed an audit?
Hell when was the last time any government agency at the federal level actually passed one?
How much money have we given to Ukraine?
How much in military equipment did we donate to Afghanistan?

It's a pathetic joke. None of the people writing the bad checks are or will be held accountable. They just create more debt out of thin air to line their pockets and the pockets of the elite then pander to us as if it's "our" problem. **** the lot of em.

 

[rosejm]

You know, all she had to do was host a couple of movie nights at those mansions, using the cars as transportation and everything would be on the up & up.

It doesn't have to be a successful program to get millions of federal dollars.
Hell she probably only had to offer those movie nights in some fashion.