A U.S. Army civilian employee is accused of stealing more than $100 million in funds that she allegedly used to buy real estate and luxury goods, Military.com reports.
Janet Yamanaka Mello, 57, was indicted Wednesday on almost a dozen charges, including mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, and criminal handling of money.
Mello could face up to 20 years in prison for each of the fraud charges, up to 10 years for each spending charge, and a mandatory two-year sentence for the identify theft charge.
Authorities allege that Mello, who worked as a financial program manager at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, created a shell nonprofit company in 2016 called Child Health and Youth Lifelong Development, which she claimed was an organization that helped programs for the adolescent children of service members.
Mello allegedly funded the company using money that she controlled as part of her job, which involved overseeing funding for civilian partner programs to the military.
Mello "played on the trust" of her co-workers and supervisors in order to have them sign off on these payments, although she allegedly forged their signatures at other times.
She's accused of accumulating more than $100 million that was spent on 31 properties and plots of land in multiple states, dozens of vehicles including classic cars, and luxury jewelry.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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