by WorldTribune Staff / 247 Real News July 24, 2024

Janet Yamanaka Mello, who stole nearly $109 million from a grant program meant to support military children and families, has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.

Janet Yamanaka Mello

Mello, 57, was convicted on five counts of mail fraud in addition to five counts of filing a false tax return for the convoluted scheme, which she carried out over the course of six years while employed by the United States Army, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release that Mello had worked as a financial manager for the Army Morale, Welfare, and Recreation program at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, specifically focusing on child and youth services.

In December 2016, Mello formed a business called Child Health and Youth Lifelong Development that was essentially used as a front for the scam. Collecting funding through a military grant initiative was the sole purpose of the business, and Mello was able to fraudulently collect millions through it because of her position in the Army.

Instead of using the grant money given to her business to provide the youth and family services that Child Health and Youth Lifelong Development claimed to offer, Mello would deposit grant checks into her own personal bank account and spend the money on various luxuries, including clothing, vehicles, and real estate, prosecutors said.

Mello used the money to buy lavish properties and 82 vehicles — including a Maserati, a Mercedes, a 1954 Corvette, and a Ferrari Fratelli motorcycle. In one instance in 2022, she used the stolen funds to purchase $923,000 of jewelry in a single day, The Associated Press reported.

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In 49 individual instances of fraud over the six-year period where her business was in operation, authorities said that Mello requested $117 million in grant payments during that period and received close to $109 million. To cover up the scam, she also falsely reported her income for the tax years 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

“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 in a statement. “Rather than $109 million in federal funds going to the care of military children throughout the world, she selfishly stole that money to buy extravagant houses, more than 80 vehicles and over 1,500 pieces of jewelry.”

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