AZ ANG 214th RG troubles

[MD]

Not good at all.

TUCSON - A shake up in the Air National Guard that's sending shock waves through the military.

The state attorney generals office indicted 21 members, including a former commander.

There are eight officers, and 13 enlisted men and women. Eight remain of those are still on active duty. Investigators say they were falsifying records to fraudulently receive extra pay.

The Attorney Generals office, together with the FBI, conducted an 18 month investigation. They found nearly two dozen members of the Air National Guard defrauded the American people of $1.4 million.

They are charged with conspiracy, criminal enterprise, and money laundering . At the center of it all a former colonel, Attorney General Tom Horne says, " [the colonel]... facilitated this for 20 people underneath him. He used his position to stop the discovery and investigation of it, and he got over $100,000 himself.

Attorney General Horne says these 21 individuals were part of a unique and high profile military group responsible for flying drones over Afghanistan and Iraq. They gather the information via satellite and then send it to the troops on the ground.

Prosecutor Mike Jette says, "People put their lives in play with boots on the ground in a foreign theatre, and people who are here not putting their lives in play were making 3 to 4 times their salary in TDY benefits.

Horne makes the comparison, " People who live in Arizona, and deployed to Afghanistan they get $3.00 a day about a $1,000 a year. Here are these 21 people who live in Tucson and go home to their families every night and took over a $100,000.

The investigation revealed, the guardsman lived in Tucson and used out of state addresses to claim the TDY benefits. If convicted the guardsman face up to 12 years in prison. The former colonel faces more.

On Friday, the 21 Air National guardsman are scheduled to appear in a Tucson courtroom.

https://www.kvoa.com/news/21-air-national-guardsman-indicted/

Edited October 22, 2013 by MD

[matmacwc]

This has been cooking for a long time

[MD]

Yes it has. They were hit with debt letters a while back, some in the six-figure $$$; now comes the punitive action.

[Bergman]

Morons. Obviously they thought they'd get away with it or they wouldn't have done it. Worth 12 years in federal pound me in the ass prison? NFW.

[matmacwc]

Names out Friday

[backseatdriver]

So what exactly were they doing? The article is a little unclear. Were they claiming they were on TDY when they weren't or claiming they were on AD when they weren't? Both?

Edited for autocorrect buffoonery.

Edited October 23, 2013 by backseatdriver

[Vertigo]

Per diem + mileage for outside the commuting distance. For example lets say you claim you live 400 miles from the base when you actually live 50 miles. 400 miles at $.56 a mile is $448 round trip. Pull 30 AT days at one day a time = $13440 in just fraudulant mileage reimbursement.

[Clayton Bigsby]

It might have more to do with long-term orders and dual billeting. There's a provision for those on long-term orders to help out people who don't live in the immediate commuting area (whatever that definition is), where BAH is paid for the home of record, and billeting is paid for around the base/activation area. Since base billeting usually kicks people off-base with a non-A letter, and off-base hotels get expensive after more than a week or two, it is considerably cheaper for the AF for the individual to rent out a furnished apartment or house or something like that. Since you're technically TDY the entire time, you get per diem as mentioned...at even $30 a day it adds up over the months.

You could see how people would want to jump onboard and how it could be abused.

[M2]

Three of the 21 plead 'not guilty'...

[jcj]

With 21 co-defendants one would imagine there is immense pressure for someone to make a deal to plead and testify against the others for a lighter sentence. Although there probably won't be more than a couple of those deals given, and they won't be worth as much because there's probably a huge paper trail of evidence. This could be really ugly before it's over.

[MD]

With 21 co-defendants one would imagine there is immense pressure for someone to make a deal to plead and testify against the others for a lighter sentence. Although there probably won't be more than a couple of those deals given, and they won't be worth as much because there's probably a huge paper trail of evidence. This could be really ugly before it's over.

There are some who weren't taking part in this directly, but who were in charge of those who were and knew what was going on and said nothing.

Basically the unit started out of the Phoenix KC-135 unit. The issue came for guys in two ways: 1. those who moved down to Tucson from Phoenix on AGR orders and for whatever reason didn't sell their homes in Phoenix, but used their Phoenix addresses as HOR, and allegedly claiming travel, per diem, and in some cases FSA when their families were living down in Tucson with them. 2. Those who didn't move from Phoenix, but chose instead to commute to Tucson and stay a few days or not down in Tucson, and how that was claimed or filed. Pretty soon, it not only became out of Tucson, but out of State HOR claims too apparently. Some also allegedly renting homes to one another that they couldn't sell in order to get mortgage paid.

Edited October 27, 2013 by MD

[BitteEinBit]

_{I guarantee you this kind of shit is going on ALL OVER DoD. GUARANTEE it. Sometimes it is intentional, sometimes not, but the loopholes people jump through to make a little extra money on behalf of big Uncle is amazing. Not the same thing, but I put it in the same "gaming the system" category as the penguins at USAFE staff who only make themselves available fly that once a month good deal 2-day mission to Turkey so they can fly over the Adriatic to get tax free for the month...otherwise they aren't available to fly those training lines to Bunker for one night.}

_{Not saying these guys are guilty or not, but if they willingly defrauded the government, they need to pay. If what they did was a just gaming a loophole, then DoD needs to fix the loophole and move on.}

[osulax05]

_{fly that once a month good deal 2-day mission to Turkey so they can fly over the Adriatic to get tax free for the month....}

Shhhh. Those Missions pay the bills.

Edited October 27, 2013 by osulax05

[BitteEinBit]

Shhhh. Those Missions pay the bills.

Oh, believe me, I took advantage...

[17D_guy]

Nice article covering the overall failings of the Guard in AZ, from over a year ago. If it ain't broke, don't fix it I guess.

https://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/20121013national-guard-republic-special-report.html?nclick_check=1

My personal fav

In October 2010, a top recruiter in Tucson was arrested on suspicion of DUI with other Guard members in his government vehicle. Military records indicate it was a repeat offense. The NCO initially was given a letter of reprimand, which was withdrawn and replaced with a less severe letter of concern.

[Toro]

which was withdrawn and replaced with a less severe letter of concern.

What is this letter of concern you speak of?

[matmacwc]

They've been cleaning house here for over two years.

[Hueypilot]

So some AZANG dumba$$es are sitting trial for defrauding the taxpayers of money in a scheme of commuting to work among other things...they are all going to a PITA prison as they should.

Enter the IRS, where dozens of top executives routinely live in other parts of the country but commute via air daily to their office in DC. Some were in a travel status for more days than there were work days, incurring expenses of up to $161,000 per person...and yet the harshest language the auditor could find was:

In such cases, the cost and frequency of travel indicate that some executives may not live in the best location to economically accomplish their roles and responsibilities. It might be more cost effective to relocate the executives through a permanent or temporary change of station

https://www.treasury.gov/tigta/iereports/2013reports/2013ier007fr.pdf

Uhh...hey, US Government...I'd rather live in the Virgin Islands and commute to Little Rock each day if that's ok with you...oh, and you're gonna pay for my travel too. Sound good? Great!

Good thing these efficient organizations will be responsible for managing our health insurance now too...

Edited October 31, 2013 by Hueypilot