What did Janet Yamanaka Mello do? Allegations explored as con artist comes under criminal investigation

Janet Yamanaka Mello allegedly conned the army of over $100 million and she retired with full benefits. Janet, a Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston civilian financial program manager created a business named 'Child Health and Youth Lifelong Development' in 2016 that claimed to provide services to military members and their families.

However, the alleged con artist under investigation allegedly used the funds from the program to buy millions of dollars worth of goods and real estate. Back in December of last year, she was charged with 10 counts relating to the scheme, including mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, and engaging in a monetary transaction over $10,000 using criminally derived proceeds.

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Janet Yamanaka Mello allegedly scammed the army and retired with benefits

Janet Yamanaka Mello allegedly swindled the military through a fake scheme. The 57-year-old earned well working as a civilian financial program manager at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston but decided to launch the 'Child Health and Youth Lifelong Development' (CHYLD) in 2016.

According to a December 6 Department of Justice press release, she claimed that CHYLD actually provided services to military members and their families via the Military Partnership Grant program, thereby being entitled to receive military funds. However, in reality, the CHYLD provided no such services and received funds from the Defense Finance and Accounting Service.

According to a December indictment, she allegedly submitted fraudulent paperwork regarding her company's entitlement of military funds and even falsified one of her supervisor's digital signatures multiple times. Through this process, she swindled over $100 million which eventually led to being hit with ten counts in relation to the fraud. The DOJ press release stated:

"The indictment alleges that Mello instead used the funds to buy millions of dollars in jewelry, clothing, vehicles, and real estate."

A San Antonio Express-News article stated that the woman reportedly even bought as many as 31 properties across a variety of states and around 80 cars. The article alleged that she made around $130,000 a year from the scam and suspicions did not even arise until 2017 when the IRS took notice of her putting her company in her personal tax returns.

Janet Yamanaka Mello was charged with one count of aggravated identity theft, five counts of mail fraud, and four counts of engaging in a monetary transaction over $10,000 using criminally derived proceeds. Each of these fraud charges could carry up to 20 years in prison and each of the spending statute charges carry 10 years. The identity theft charge carries a maximum of 2 years.

However, despite the woman being under investigation for the fraud, she was still entitled to her retirement benefits. An Installation Management Command spokeswoman for the U.S. Army told San Antonio Express-News that the command had no authority to impact her retirement. The spokeswoman stated:

"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."

She added:

"There is no similar statutory authority for denying retired pay based on a conviction of other offenses."

The spokeswoman confirmed that Janet Yamanaka Mello retired with full benefits. Janet Yamanaka Mello's attorney, Albert Flores told the outlet that she had "earned" the benefits of retirement as she had joined the Civil Service back in the U.S. territory of Guam and had worked for the government for a long time. Flores further added that most of the assets could be recovered. The attorney stated:

"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."

Janet Yamanaka Mello, who pleaded not guilty to the charges is all set for her next court appearance on the 12th of February.