An Army employee accused of funding her extravagant lifestyle by stealing more than $108 million from a grant program designated for military families was sentenced to jail time, officials said
Janet Yamanaka Mello, 57, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on five counts of mail fraud and five counts of filing a false tax return, according to a July 23 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas.
“I hope that we were able to communicate the level of remorse that Ms. Mello has for her actions,” Mello’s attorney, Albert Flores, told McClatchy News in a statement on July 24.
“As she stated at sentencing, she is embarrassed and ashamed at what she has done. From the first contact with law enforcement, we have worked with the government to try to identify and return as many of the assets as possible. I believe that the government will ultimately recover a large part of what was taken,” Flores added.
“Having said that, we are disappointed with the sentence. We did not expect her to walk away with zero punishment, however considering the circumstances and her age we believe that the current sentence was somewhat excessive,” Flores said.
In Mello’s role as a financial program manager at Fort Sam Houston, her primary duty was to determine whether 4-H Military Partnership funding was available to entities that applied for a grant, according to a sentencing memorandum.
Mello formed a fake business called Child Health and Youth Lifelong Development, or CHYLD, and used that business to fraudulently secure 4-H funding, according to court records.
Once she received a grant check, she would deposit it into her bank account and spend it on money, jewelry, vehicles and real estate, officials said.
Mello did this 49 times between 2016 and 2023, receiving a total of $108,917,749, according to officials.
“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,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
On a single day in 2022, Mello spent $923,000 on jewelry, according to court records.
Mello and her husband bought at least 31 pieces of real estate across the county, estimated to be worth $23 million, court records show.
Officials said her “penchant for extravagance is what brought her down,” and they were able to determine that her reported income was “well below” the lifestyle she lived.
Mello omitted millions of dollars in income from five years of her taxes, officials said.
Fort Sam Houston is located in San Antonio.
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