A civilian employee of the US Army in Texas was arrested last month and charged with bilking the service of $100 million that she used for international trips, vintage and high-end motorcycles and cars, designer clothing and jewelry, expensive restaurants, and millions of dollars of real estate purchases.
Janet Mello, 57, was 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, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
According to the San Antonio Express-News, Mello’s crimes came to the attention of investigators after the Internal Revenue Service flagged her as a possible tax cheat, court documents say, noting a huge discrepancy between her Army salary and her multiple purchases and high bank balances.
Mello set up a shell company, called Child Health and Youth Lifelong Developement (CHYLD) in 2016 and used it to funnel money from a 4-H program for military families she administered while working at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston.
Court documents say Mello reported that CHYLD earned a profit of $483 dollars on revenue of $2,152 for training consultations and included the company in her personal income taxes in 2017, but after that filed no “subsequent income tax returns for CHYLD on a personal nor a busines entity income tax return,” according to a federal lawsuit filed on December 27 that seeks to recoup more than $18 million in bank accounts linked to Mello, whose pay was just $129, 996 in 2022.
The Express-News found that one of Mello’s most recent property purchase as a 60-acre estate in Maryland that she bought while on temporary assignment to Washington, D.C.
Authorities say Mello exploited lax controls with the Army’s Installation Management Command to syphon $103 million to her company instead of the 4-H program between 2017 and 2023.
The News-Express said that the scheme appeared to accelerate in 2019, when changes to IMCOM’s structure gave her more flexibility — and less oversight — over how she did her job.
While claiming that CHYLD provided 4-H services for military families, Mello had the Defense Finance and Accounting Service cut CHYLD more than 40 checks totally more than $103 million. But federal authorities say that CHYLD provided no such services. Between March 2022 and April 2023, the forfeiture lawsuit says, more than $61 million was paid to CHYLD.
Court documents say that Mello forged her supervisor’s signature on the forms needed to secure the payments, but Assistant US Attorney Justin Simmons said that the Army apparently never conducted an audit of the program.
Meanwhile, court documents say that between December 17, 2021, and May 31, 2023, Mello spent nearly $43 million dollars: $24.3 million on “retail,” $10.9 million on jewelry, $8 million on vehicles, $130,150 on airfare, and $80,432 on lodging.
Among the vehicles she owned were a Land Rover, an Aston Martin, and a 1935 Plymouth Sedan.
Mello faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for each fraud charge and spending statute and a minimum of two years for the identify theft charge, if she is convicted.
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[Featured image: Janet Mello/US Department of Justice]
