Woman Accused of $100M Army Theft Retires With Benefits

A woman accused of stealing more than $100 million from the U.S. Army, was allowed to retire with full benefits, the San Antonio Express-News reported.

Janet Yamanaka Mello, a 57-year-old civilian employee, was indicted on almost a dozen charges, including mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, and criminal handling of money.

She allegedly used the money to buy real estate and luxury goods, Military.com reported earlier this month.

The Express-News reported that a spokeswoman for the Army’s Installation Management Command said Mello retired during the investigation into her behavior.

Federal law allowed Mello, who earned $130,000 per year as a civilian finance manager at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, to retire with full benefits.

“The command has no authority to impact Ms. Mello’s retirement,” the spokeswoman told the newspaper in an email. “In accordance with 5 U.S. Code Section 8312, an individual may be denied an annuity or retired pay on the basis of the service of the individual, if the individual is convicted of treason, rebellion or insurrection, or other similar offenses. There is no similar statutory authority for denying retired pay based on a conviction of other offenses.”

Mello’s retirement is covered by the Federal Employee Retirement Service (FERS), which offers her a basic benefit plan, social security and thrift savings plan, DailyMail.com reported.

Mello’s case is an example of how it can be difficult to fire U.S. Civil Service employees, even for bad conduct. The Express-News reported that private sector workers are three times as likely to be terminated as their federal counterparts, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Attorney Albert Flores defended Mello’s decision to retire and collect benefits. He said his client worked for the government for a long time after joining the Civil Service in her native Guam, a U.S. territory that has a military base.

“She earned it,” Flores said, the Express-News reported. “I don’t see how one thing is related to the other.”

Authorities allege 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.

Authorities accuse Mello of diverting $103 million to her company instead of the educational program it was intended for.

In December, Mello pleaded not guilty.

“We expect a large portion of the assets will be recovered,” Flores said, “In other words, a lot of the money was spent on tangible assets that the government can [recoup] — real estate, cash, vehicles, properties, things of that nature. We’re being very cooperative in anything we can to turn that over.”

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.