San Antonio woman cons $100,000,000 out of US Army

[Armybrat 40,844]

Civilian employee at Fort Sam Houston uses bilked money to buy scores of luxury cars and mansions all over the USA….

https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdtx/pr/army-civilian-employee-indicted-san-antonio-alleged-100-million-fraud-scheme

 

[Nivek 16,929]

How long has that scam been going on?   Is there a job opening?

[RPM 26,320]

Quote

According to court documents, Janet Yamanaka Mello, 57, allegedly stole more than $100 million in Army funds by regularly submitting fraudulent paperwork that indicated an entity she controlled, Child Health and Youth Lifelong Development (CHYLD), was entitled to receive funds from the Army. Mello claimed that CHYLD provided services to military members and their families.

Narrator: In reality, CHYLD did not provide any services. 

Rules are not fun. One of the people below is Janet Yamanaka Mello. You decide.

Edited January 11 by RPM

[MonkeyDoughnut 10,235]

I'm going to take this into account next time the Army says they need more money. 6+ years, 100M+ and Army had no idea.

[Jerry Callo 8,702]

1 hour ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

I'm going to take this into account next time the Army says they need more money. 6+ years, 100M+ and Army had no idea.

$100M is a rounding error for the DoD and the federal government.

[ImissWallyPryor 9,046]

If she stopped at $90,000,000, she probably would’ve gotten away with it. Go government!

[BehoId, The Underminer! 11,669]

1 minute ago, Jerry Callo said:

$100M is a rounding error for the DoD and the federal government.

that's a problem too then.

[Sandman 3,403]

I bet she takes her christmas tree back to costco for a refund every year!

[BehoId, The Underminer! 11,669]

could be a pretty short sentence if the judge feels like it.

 

Quote

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. She is scheduled for her initial court appearance Dec. 14 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry J. Bemporad of the U.S. District Court 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. The indictment also includes a notice of forfeiture for the proceeds and property that Mello obtained as a result of the criminal conduct alleged. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

if they run concurrently, she might be out in a decade. 

 

hopefully judge isn't a dope and they're consecutive.  we will see her in 300 years.

[AUS-97HORN 11,761]

I mean, I understand greed is a massive factor, but if you know you have scammed the Federal government for $25/40/50 MILLION fucking dollars in say 3 or 4 years, why in the holy fuck would you fucking stay in the country?

 

you know damn well the government auditors work slow, and you can get away with it for 2,3 years (covid obviously was a bonus year+)..   get the fuck out of the country once you have $30M, go to a tough-to-expedite country and fucking retire there.  I mean jeeezus, getting 4% means she would get over a million a year just in interest.  you can live bigly and laugh at the money you stole.... you just cant ever come back to the US.

[crash_davis 23,113]

 

1 minute ago, BehoId, The Underminer! said:

could be a pretty short sentence if the judge feels like it.

 

if they run concurrently, she might be out in a decade. 

 

hopefully judge isn't a dope and they're consecutive.  we will see her in 300 years.

 

Her extended family from their mansion on some Caribbean Island: "Here's to Aunt Mello! She took one for the team.

[Gatorubet 30,238]

The reason you steal $100 million is so that no one will ever find you and the $100 million again. I’ve never understood why people go full Aggie after they steal a bunch of money and start buying luxury cars and homes for every knuckle dragger in the family. 

[Snake Diggity 4,624]

7 minutes ago, AUS-97HORN said:

I mean, I understand greed is a massive factor, but if you know you have scammed the Federal government for $25/40/50 MILLION fucking dollars in say 3 or 4 years, why in the holy fuck would you fucking stay in the country?

 

you know damn well the government auditors work slow, and you can get away with it for 2,3 years (covid obviously was a bonus year+)..   get the fuck out of the country once you have $30M, go to a tough-to-expedite country and fucking retire there.  I mean jeeezus, getting 4% means she would get over a million a year just in interest.  you can live bigly and laugh at the money you stole.... you just cant ever come back to the US.

Yep.  Hell, she probably could’ve negotiated a plea from outside the country that just pays back some of the money and been able to keep millions and live phat as hell in Bali or wherever the fuck for the rest of her days.  She had to at least have some snap to be able to pull of the scam in the first place, sad to be so stupid in the end.

[Storm the Field 5,294]

Seems like the vast majority of fraud/embezzlement schemes that eventually come out are due to the defrauded entity having zero financial controls. It's either a small company where the accounting department is literally a single person with full access to all accounts and unilateral ability to approve invoices, or a big school or govt institution like this where nobody really notices or bothers to check into why some department is paying millions of dollars a year in invoices to some vague entity.

There was a case just a year or two ago where the finance director for Yale Medical School was found to have embezzled $40M over the course of 7 years. How did she do it? She had blanket authority to approve any purchase below $10k. She would order hundreds of laptops and tablets every month, always keeping each individual purchase order under $10K, and then hand them straight to a grey-market reseller and pocket the cash. Nobody every looked into why the department needed several thousand new computers and tablets every year.  

 

[Jerry Callo 8,702]

18 minutes ago, BehoId, The Underminer! said:

that's a problem too then.

No doubt.  I looked it up and the combined DoD budget for the last 6 years was $4.317 trillion. 

For comparison:  100 million seconds = 3.28 years and 4.317 trillion seconds = 136,797 years.

[Schulz2.0 28,951]

3 minutes ago, Storm the Field said:

Seems like the vast majority of fraud/embezzlement schemes that eventually come out are due to the defrauded entity having zero financial controls. It's either a small company where the accounting department is literally a single person with full access to all accounts and unilateral ability to approve invoices, or a big school or govt institution like this where nobody really notices or bothers to check into why some department is paying millions of dollars a year in invoices to some vague entity.

There was a case just a year or two ago where the finance director for Yale Medical School was found to have embezzled $40M over the course of 7 years. How did she do it? She had blanket authority to approve any purchase below $10k. She would order hundreds of laptops and tablets every month, always keeping each individual purchase order under $10K, and then hand them straight to a grey-market reseller and pocket the cash. Nobody every looked into why the department needed several thousand new computers and tablets every year.  

 

Jacksonville Jaguars' had an executive steal $22m.

https://www.wbaltv.com/amp/article/former-jaguars-financial-manager-pleads-guilty-to-stealing-millions/46147336

[Storm the Field 5,294]

10 minutes ago, Gatorubet said:

The reason you steal $100 million is so that no one will ever find you and the $100 million again. I’ve never understood why people go full Aggie after they steal a bunch of money and start buying luxury cars and homes for every knuckle dragger in the family. 

I don't think most people start out intending to steal $100M. A lot of times it's just some middle-class regular joe that hits some financial trouble or wants to buy something they can't afford and they decide to try it once, swearing it'll only be this time, and they get away with it. Later they start thinking about how easy it was, and they do it a second time. And then a third, and so on. Eventually it just becomes part and parcel of their daily routine. Clock in, pay some fake invoices, move some money around bank accounts, and then start shopping for luxury goods. They get addicted to being able to buy whatever they want, and even more importantly, looking rich AF. 

Texas Monthly did an in-depth story a few years on a guy's years-long embezzlement scheme at the Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana that really delves into the why and the how. Definitely worth a read. 

https://www.texasmonthly.com/true-crime/just-desserts/

Also, back to my earlier point, the dude didn't get caught for so long because he was basically the entire accounting department and had no oversight. He got found out almost immediately after they brought in an assistant. 

[Gatorubet 30,238]

1 minute ago, Storm the Field said:

https://www.texasmonthly.com/true-crime/just-desserts/

Also, back to my earlier point, the dude didn't get caught for so long because he was basically the entire accounting department and had no oversight. He got found out almost immediately after they brought in an assistant. 

[Boss Hogg 808]

Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. 

[BehoId, The Underminer! 11,669]

27 minutes ago, Jerry Callo said:

No doubt.  I looked it up and the combined DoD budget for the last 6 years was $4.317 trillion. 

For comparison:  100 million seconds = 3.28 years and 4.317 trillion seconds = 136,797 years.

another way to look at it is she stole most of the december 6 package to Ukraine.

 

https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3608913/biden-administration-announces-new-security-assistance-for-ukraine/

 

Quote

The capabilities in this package, valued at up to $175 million, include: 

AIM-9M and AIM-7 missiles for air defense;

Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS);

155mm and 105mm artillery rounds;

High-speed Anti-radiation missiles (HARMs);

Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) missiles;

Javelin and AT-4 anti-armor systems;

More than 4 million rounds of small arms ammunition;

Vehicles to tow and haul equipment;

Demolitions munitions for obstacle clearing;

Equipment to protect critical national infrastructure;

Spare parts, maintenance, and other ancillary equipment.

 

[Wally Fairway 5,549]

47 minutes ago, AUS-97HORN said:

I mean, I understand greed is a massive factor, but if you know you have scammed the Federal government for $25/40/50 MILLION fucking dollars in say 3 or 4 years, why in the holy fuck would you fucking stay in the country?

 

you know damn well the government auditors work slow, and you can get away with it for 2,3 years (covid obviously was a bonus year+)..   get the fuck out of the country once you have $30M, go to a tough-to-expedite country and fucking retire there.  I mean jeeezus, getting 4% means she would get over a million a year just in interest.  you can live bigly and laugh at the money you stole.... you just cant ever come back to the US.

I've always said that you could only trust up the point that I could steal enough to buy my own island, easy answer was 9 digits. 
One time, the bank rolled over an overnight investment at the company I was controller at, and the $1.2 million was miskeyed at $120 million (someone moved the decimal two places). Sadly they had corrected it before I even knew it happened; I heard there is a small island in the Caribbean that is nice this time of year, I miss that island.

Edited January 11 by Wally Fairway

[Guest]

Congress folks…Mark Cuban gif.

[Elvis 3,371]

[Gatorubet 30,238]

17 minutes ago, BeardIP said:

I think this is smack on. The psychology of it all.

Oddly, women, as a gender demographic are way over- represented in embezzlers. My personal belief is that the customary practice of paying women less than men leads to women deciding to independently correct that problem. Pretty soon that thrill of having new nice things takes over.

[Gatorubet 30,238]

55 minutes ago, Boss Hogg said:

Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. 

Defer to username

[Fudge Nuggets 19,190]

1 hour ago, BehoId, The Underminer! said:

if they run concurrently, she might be out in a decade. 

I would do a decade in the pen for $100MM.

 

Quote

hopefully judge isn't a dope and they're consecutive.  we will see her in 300 years.

This would change the calculus.

[Storm the Field 5,294]

16 minutes ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

I would do a decade in the pen for $100MM.

You typically don't get to keep the money you're caught embezzling.

[Incredulity 11,671]

6 minutes ago, Storm the Field said:

You typically don't get to keep the money you're caught embezzling.

obligatory

[F250 28,775]

1 hour ago, Storm the Field said:

I don't think most people start out intending to steal $100M. A lot of times it's just some middle-class regular joe that hits some financial trouble or wants to buy something they can't afford and they decide to try it once, swearing it'll only be this time, and they get away with it. Later they start thinking about how easy it was, and they do it a second time. And then a third, and so on. Eventually it just becomes part and parcel of their daily routine. Clock in, pay some fake invoices, move some money around bank accounts, and then start shopping for luxury goods. They get addicted to being able to buy whatever they want, and even more importantly, looking rich AF. 

Texas Monthly did an in-depth story a few years on a guy's years-long embezzlement scheme at the Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana that really delves into the why and the how. Definitely worth a read. 

https://www.texasmonthly.com/true-crime/just-desserts/

Also, back to my earlier point, the dude didn't get caught for so long because he was basically the entire accounting department and had no oversight. He got found out almost immediately after they brought in an assistant. 

That dude when the assistant accountant showed up for work.

[RPM 26,320]

2 hours ago, AUS-97HORN said:

get the fuck out of the country once you have $30M, go to a tough-to-expedite country and fucking retire there.  I mean jeeezus, getting 4% means she would get over a million a year just in interest.  you can live bigly and laugh at the money you stole.... you just cant ever come back to the US.

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4,976]

The last time the pentagon was audited, they couldn't account for half of their budget. This is a rounding error for just the unaccounted for money.

[crash_davis 23,113]

2 minutes ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

The last time the pentagon was audited, they couldn't account for half of their budget. This is a rounding error for just the unaccounted for money.

[Guadaloopy 10,970]

3 hours ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

I'm going to take this into account next time the Army says they need more money. 6+ years, 100M+ and Army had no idea.

 

2 hours ago, Jerry Callo said:

$100M is a rounding error for the DoD and the federal government.

In the DoD aggregate, this is a rounding error, but at the service level, this is real money.

At the service level, we were kicking and scratching and providing gnat's ass justification for every dollar spent.  I worked with budget numbers like this and the detailed work that went into generating and executing them was extensive.  I am at a complete loss as to how a service can lose sight of this amount of money.  Several levels of oversight had significant failures to allow this to happen.

Based on my experience working in the Pentagon, this whole situation in breaking my brain.

[BehoId, The Underminer! 11,669]

Federal courts are moving to seize 31 parcels of land in Texas, Washington, Maryland, Colorado, and New Mexico, which Mello allegedly purchased using ill-gotten proceeds. Also sought for forfeiture are 78 personal cars, pickup trucks, and motorcycles, among them a 1978 Toyota FJ-40 Landcruiser, a 1954 Maserati 124 GT Racer, and numerous Ducati and Harley Davidson motorcycles.

Over $10 million held in various bank accounts are also being eyed by the feds.

 

https://www.guampdn.com/news/former-guam-resident-pleads-not-guilty-to-100m-fraud-charges/article_f95e24fc-9f01-11ee-a878-b782438e9100.html

[BehoId, The Underminer! 11,669]

2 minutes ago, Guadaloopy said:

 

In the DoD aggregate, this is a rounding error, but at the service level, this is real money.

At the service level, we were kicking and scratching and providing gnat's ass justification for every dollar spent.  I worked with budget numbers like this and the detailed work that went into generating and executing them was extensive.  I am at a complete loss as to how a service can lose sight of this amount of money.  Several levels of oversight had significant failures to allow this to happen.

Based on my experience working in the Pentagon, this whole situation in breaking my brain.

yeah, this thread zooming out out out to make the numbers seem small is weird.  it isn't even one whole aircraft carrier she stole!

[Incredulity 11,671]

13 minutes ago, BehoId, The Underminer! said:

it isn't even one whole aircraft carrier she stole!

Challenge accepted

[Wally Fairway 5,549]

It is actually easier that you might think. When I was a young, wet behind the ears auditor, I was working with a small father & son firm and the dad was a former FBI agent and he loved to tell stories. He laughed at some of our audit techniques, like sending out confirmations; then he told us about a Sr. Bank VP who created a bunch of interbank loans that were not on the banks books, and the confirms used to come to that guy for signatures. I don't remember all the details, but it was enough to make me think I didn't want to audit banks, or other financial institutions.

and google is an amazing machine - found a story about it. I mean $17 million in 1980 is like real money today (almost $65 mil - again according to google)

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/08/18/A-former-Allied-Bank-of-Texas-vice-president-pleaded/1242366955200/

[High Plains Drifter 11,049]

 

We always hear about the ones that get caught. Makes me wonder about the ones that don't get caught.

As in, which beach are they sitting on while earning 20%?

[Storm the Field 5,294]

1 hour ago, F250 said:

That dude when the assistant accountant showed up for work.

The reason why banks and other companies sometimes have mandatory vacation policies for the financial/accounting people. FDIC currently recommends that all banking employees be required to either take vacation or be rotated out of their usual job rresponsibilities for at least 14 consecutive days. 

If a person in charge of handling money/paying invoices at a business never takes time off and never wants anyone else to handle any facet of their job, that's a flashing embezzlement warning light that at least merits increased scrutiny.

[RPM 26,320]

4 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

Makes me wonder about the ones that don't get caught.

Film rights rarely make up the loss in cash and brand.

[Wally Fairway 5,549]

3 minutes ago, Wally Fairway said:

It is actually easier that you might think. When I was a young, wet behind the ears auditor, I was working with a small father & son firm and the dad was a former FBI agent and he loved to tell stories. He laughed at some of our audit techniques, like sending out confirmations; then he told us about a Sr. Bank VP who created a bunch of interbank loans that were not on the banks books, and the confirms used to come to that guy for signatures. I don't remember all the details, but it was enough to make me think I didn't want to audit banks, or other financial institutions.

and google is an amazing machine - found a story about it. I mean $17 million in 1980 is like real money today (almost $65 mil - again according to google)

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/08/18/A-former-Allied-Bank-of-Texas-vice-president-pleaded/1242366955200/

actually found a juicier write up of Mr Wynzzard Darrell Wiggins, sounds like some of the Enron boys followed his lead; going to titty bars and tipping his favorite entertainers

https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,954807-1,00.html

for some reason this shit fascinates me - maybe I should make my next life/career change to do fraud audits

[Armybrat 40,844]

2 hours ago, Gatorubet said:

Oddly, women, as a gender demographic are way over- represented in embezzlers. My personal belief is that the customary practice of paying women less than men leads to women deciding to independently correct that problem. Pretty soon that thrill of having new nice things takes over.

A few years ago the president of the Round Rock High School band booster club was convicted of embezzling several thousand $ from their activity fund. 
Can’t recall what her sentence was though. 
Quite a shocker.

[Armybrat 40,844]

24 minutes ago, Storm the Field said:

The reason why banks and other companies sometimes have mandatory vacation policies for the financial/accounting people. FDIC currently recommends that all banking employees be required to either take vacation or be rotated out of their usual job rresponsibilities for at least 14 consecutive days. 

If a person in charge of handling money/paying invoices at a business never takes time off and never wants anyone else to handle any facet of their job, that's a flashing embezzlement warning light that at least merits increased scrutiny.

Good to know - my son is a senior VP with a major regional bank system. He takes a lot of time off. 😄

[ImissWallyPryor 9,046]

3 hours ago, Schulz2.0 said:

Jacksonville Jaguars' had an executive steal $22m.

https://www.wbaltv.com/amp/article/former-jaguars-financial-manager-pleads-guilty-to-stealing-millions/46147336

Had to laugh at this:

“He also kept gambling in hopes of winning back his money and repaying the misappropriated funds, his attorney said.”

https://www.wbaltv.com/article/former-jaguars-financial-manager-pleads-guilty-to-stealing-millions/46147336

[Pig Bellmont 8,718]

1 hour ago, BehoId, The Underminer! said:

Federal courts are moving to seize 31 parcels of land in Texas, Washington, Maryland, Colorado, and New Mexico, which Mello allegedly purchased using ill-gotten proceeds. Also sought for forfeiture are 78 personal cars, pickup trucks, and motorcycles, among them a 1978 Toyota FJ-40 Landcruiser, a 1954 Maserati 124 GT Racer, and numerous Ducati and Harley Davidson motorcycles.

Over $10 million held in various bank accounts are also being eyed by the feds.

 

https://www.guampdn.com/news/former-guam-resident-pleads-not-guilty-to-100m-fraud-charges/article_f95e24fc-9f01-11ee-a878-b782438e9100.html

So dumb. Should have withdrawn all amounts in cash and left the country. Buying houses in the US? Bank accounts? And she just kept showing up to work? It’s like she’s never seen any tv shows or movies about crime 

[BehoId, The Underminer! 11,669]

She was a financial program manager.  You know, someone with a salary of $90,000 usually has less than 78 Maseratis. 

[MonkeyDoughnut 10,235]

3 hours ago, Storm the Field said:

I don't think most people start out intending to steal $100M. A lot of times it's just some middle-class regular joe that hits some financial trouble or wants to buy something they can't afford and they decide to try it once, swearing it'll only be this time, and they get away with it. Later they start thinking about how easy it was, and they do it a second time. And then a third, and so on. Eventually it just becomes part and parcel of their daily routine. Clock in, pay some fake invoices, move some money around bank accounts, and then start shopping for luxury goods. They get addicted to being able to buy whatever they want, and even more importantly, looking rich AF. 

Texas Monthly did an in-depth story a few years on a guy's years-long embezzlement scheme at the Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana that really delves into the why and the how. Definitely worth a read. 

https://www.texasmonthly.com/true-crime/just-desserts/

Also, back to my earlier point, the dude didn't get caught for so long because he was basically the entire accounting department and had no oversight. He got found out almost immediately after they brought in an assistant. 

Still kills me that he only got 10 years - basically same amount of time he got to enjoy all that ill gain (died in prison though) but his wife... playing dumb got only probation and community service. It's no wonder people attempt these kind of things when seeing those type penalties. "I had no idea" is criminal in itself as she flies dozens of times a year on a private jet spending millions of dollars that her accountant for a "struggling" fruitcake business husband "made".

[Deej 76,789]

Maybe she didn't intend to steal that much?

 

[Storm the Field 5,294]

4 minutes ago, BehoId, The Underminer! said:

She was a financial program manager.  You know, someone with a salary of $90,000 usually has less than 78 Maseratis. 

The accountant in the Texas Monthly story I posted was making $50K/year when he started skimming from the company back in 2005 or so. Before long, he was known to have one of the more impressive luxury watch collections in the greater Dallas area. On one shopping trip, he spent more than his entire annual salary in a single transaction, buying 5 different Rolexes. That same year, his wife spent almost half a million, ten times his legit earnings, just on private flights to their 2nd home in Santa Fe and to  Aspen and Napa. 

[BehoId, The Underminer! 11,669]

at least she was discreet about it.  only 3 $5MM checks in a five week period.  2 more in the two months after.

 

Count
Approx.
Contents
Date
1 9/7/2022
DFAS check number 10001161 in the amount of
$4,799,282.50 and made payable to CHYLD.
2
9/26/2022
DFAS check number 10001164 in the amount of
$5,429,001.97 and made payable to CHYLD.
3
10/20/2022
DFAS check number 10001169 in the amount of
$5,122,230.97 and made payable to CHYLD.
4
11/9/2022
DF AS check number 10001173 in the amount of
$5,617,234.37 and made payable to CHYLD.
5
12/1/2022
DF AS check number 10001177 in the amount of
$5,864,669.44 and made payable to CHYLD.