Janet Yamanaka Mello, a civilian employee of the U. S. Army at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in federal prison for embezzlement of $ 108 875 000 from a youth development program for children of military families.
U. S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez imposed the sentence after Mello had pleaded guilty in March to five counts of mail fraud and five counts of filing false tax returns. Prosecutors said that Mello, who was in charge of managing funds for the youth program, embezzled the money by establishing a fictitious organization known as Child Health and Youth Lifelong Development.
”Janet Mello violated the trust of the government agency she worked for and continued to lie to embezzle money,” said U. S. Attorney Jaime Esparza for the Western District of Texas. “Instead of assisting military children around the globe with $109 million in federal funds, she used it for personal gains; luxurious homes, over eighty vehicles, and over one thousand five hundred pieces of jewellery.”
Defense attorney Albert Flores noted that Mello was remorseful, stressing the fact that she understood that she did something wrong. He also observed that she tried to preserve items bought with the stolen money with a view of repaying the government.
Flores said that Mello’s defence did not intend on appealing the sentence.
The prosecutors described how Mello used the fake organization to apply for grants for six years, submitting over 40 fake applications and receiving $108 875 388 that he was not entitled to. The funds were spent on real estate and property, luxury apparel, and jewelry; in fact, a single day’s jewelry purchase was worth $923,000 in the year 2022. Also, Mello had a fleet of 82 cars, some of which were in the garage and discovered to be non-functional during a search conducted in 2023 because they had been idle for some time.
‘Mello’s lavish lifestyle led to her downfall,’ said Lucy Tan, acting special agent in charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation’s Houston office.
The prosecution also pointed out that Mello abused the trust that people had in her position and her profound knowledge of grant programs as the factors that allowed her to commit crimes.
Denise Faison, a co-worker and a friend of Mello, wrote a letter to the judge defending her as a good person who did not intend to harm anyone and asked for mercy.
The sentencing ends a case that has exposed gaps in the monitoring of federal grant programs and is a strong message of the risks of embezzlement in government departments.
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