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.
And yet Jan6th folks get less for sedition.
Let’s call it what it actually was a terrorist attack.
To call it simply terrorism reduces what what was actually planned. This was sedition and treason. Terrorism is stochastic with the goal of undermining society upon itself. This was more than that. This was a takeover attempt, a coup.
Evil AND dumb. Stealing from kids who are having a hard childhood, and defrauding the government in a way that’ll get caught by a standard audit. I hope she has to pay it all back too
If you’re familiar with life on a base stealing from base family services is truly horrific.
If you’re a defense contractor they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the taxes.
You wouldn’t download a car
Totally would. The very instant that capable 3D printers are developed.
A co-worker and friend of Mello’s, Denise Faison, defended Mello in a letter to the judge.
“Janet Mello is a good, kind, caring and loving person that would do no harm to anyone,” Faison wrote. “Janet has so much more to offer the world. Please allow her to repay her debt to society by returning what she has taken but not be behind prison bars.”
Absolutely fuck you too lady. She fucked over thousands of kids to the tune of 109 mil over 6 years so she could buy nearly $1 million in jewelry in one day, 82 cars that apprently mostly had dead batteries from neglect, and multiple mansions, and you think she should “pay off her debt” by returning just some of ithe money she stole from thousands of kids and not spending anytime in prison?
A Co-Worker? Hey you know cells traditionally have two beds…
I just want to make sure people understand who she was stealing from. Most of these kids will qualify for government assistance. They will all move at least 4 times during their school years. They do not have anywhere they can go to screw around, there’s adults all over the base that have no problem reporting the kids to the boss of their parents.
They desperately need their community centers and programs. Their parents are depending on these programs as a part of making it acceptable to raise children in that environment. In some cases the after school care program is absolutely essential because both parents are service members and both of them are kept after normal duty hours.
This woman stole that. She stole the summer lunches, the basketballs, and the college prep classes from some of the most stressed kids I’ve ever seen.
She can rot in that prison for the rest of her fucking life for all anyone associated with the military cares.
15 years
Oh, so he wasnt already rich before, got it.
