A Texas woman will spend more than a decade in prison after stealing over $100 million from the military to fund her lavish lifestyle.
A federal judge sentenced Janet Yamanaka Mello, 57, to a term of 15 years in federal prison last week on five counts of fraud and five counts of filing false tax returns.
Mello previously worked as an employee for the Child & Youth Services department at Fort Sam Houston, according to court documents. From 2016 to 2023, she operated a business called Child Health and Youth Lifelong Development, which she used to apply for grants through the military’s 4-H partnership program, prosecutors said. Mello was in charge of approving those grants, which were meant to fund childcare and other programs for kids.
Prosecutors said in a statement that Mello’s business had the “sole purpose” of receiving the donations that she “fraudulently secured by way of her position as a CYS financial program manager.”
Police say Mello used the money she stole to buy 80 vehicles, more than 1,500 pieces of jewelry, clothes, and real estate.
“Mello’s penchant for extravagance is what brought her down,” Lucy Tan, acting special agent in charge of the IRS’ field office in Houston, said in the statement. “We identified that her reported income was well below the lavish lifestyle she lived. As we uncovered the details, the criminal scheme grew, the dollar amount grew, and the reach of her spending grew,” Tan said.
According to the Justice Department, Mello approved 49 grants for herself during a six-year period totaling $108,917,749. She also reported her taxes incorrectly from 2017 to 2022, effectively omitting “millions of dollars in fraudulent income.”
“Her actions reflect exactly the opposite of what it means to serve your country, and my office will continue to work tirelessly to prosecute those who illegally seek personal gain at the expense of their fellow citizens,” Jaime Esparza, US Attorney for the Western District of Texas, said.
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