BOHICA...
Posted on 10/22/2016 7:15:19 PM PDT by Chode
Thousands in California, many of whom served in Iraq and Afghanistan, called on to return enlistment bonuses amid reported ‘widespread overpayments’
Thousands of soldiers in the California national guard, many of whom served active duty tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, are being asked to pay back large enlistment bonuses they received as much as 12 years ago.
The Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday that nearly 10,000 soldiers may be affected by the demands, after audits “revealed widespread overpayments by the California guard at the height of the wars last decade”.
Christopher Van Meter, a 42-year-old former army captain and Iraq veteran, told the Times he refinanced his home to pay $46,000 in bonus money and student loans which the army said he never should have received.
“These bonuses were used to keep people in,” Van Meter told the paper. “People like me just got screwed.”
In the mid-2000s, as wars continued in Afghanistan and Iraq, military officials throughout the US felt pressure to boost enrollment. At the peak of the simultaneous offensives, generous enlistment bonuses were one of the ways officials tried to solve the problem.
Overpayments occurred in every state during this period, according to the National Guard Bureau, the Pentagon agency that oversees state guard organizations. But payments were especially unwieldy in California, which is home to the country’s second-largest state guard.
In 2012, a former bonus and incentive manager for the California national guard, retired master sergeant Toni Jaffe, was jailed for 30 months for filing false claims.
In her guilty plea, the US attorney’s office for the central district of California said, Jaffe “admitted that she submitted claims to pay bonuses to members of the California national guard whom she knew were not eligible to receive the bonuses and to pay off officer’s loans, even though she knew the officers were ineligible for loan repayment”.
Rather than forgive the loans, the California state government embarked on an audit of more than 17,000 soldiers who received a combined 25,000 disbursements worth about $100m.
The audit process concluded last month, with roughly 9,700 current and retired soldiers having been told to repay some or all of their bonuses. The state has recovered more than $22m so far, the LA Times reported, but collections are likely to continue for several years.
In a class action suit filed in February, one of the affected guardsmen calls the affected soldiers “victims of one of the most egregious mass frauds in US military history”.
The plaintiff, Bryan Strother, alleges that the payments were laid out in binding contracts and that the statute of limitations for the state has long passed.
Strother has asked for all the money collected to be paid back, and for an injunction against the state collecting any more. The case is in federal court and a ruling is expected in January.
Even state guard officials acknowledged to the Times that the attempt to collect was unfair.
“At the end of the day, the soldiers ended up paying the largest price,” Maj Gen Matthew Beevers, deputy commander of the California guard, told the Times. “We’d be more than happy to absolve these people of their debts.
“We just can’t do it. We’d be breaking the law.”
BOHICA...
ping
So, they accidentally allow 1800 illegals to become citizens but can’t reverse that error, but can come after patriots 10 years after they make the error. Got it.
Trump would say, "Shut the hell up and leave these soldiers alone. They risked their lives to earn this money"
Seems like there would be a statute of limitations on such things.
There would certainly be if it were the other way around, the government owed the peasants.
It’s not an accident if it was in their contract. They can’t just go and say, oh we put $12,000 in your enlistment contract but it was supposed to be $10,000. Sorry.
“Welcome to the United States.”
They signed a contract, government says contract was wrong, but contract was signed by both parties.
Get it from the money obama gave to his muslim thugs.
What’s legal and what’s moral here might not be synonymous.
The Pentagon needs to fix this and do it in such a way that if benefits or special considerations are offered in the future, they will still be believed. What recruiting prospect is going to want to hire lawyers and investigators to find out whether they were told the truth, before signing on the dotted line? In the future, I would say there needs to be somewhere that the buck is guaranteed to stop. That there is a way for the Pentagon to say it in such a way that it will NOT be gone back on, EVER.
This kinda sorta sounds like lefty sabotage...
Thanks Chode. I pinged it out this morning.
I hate to say this, but this is GREAT for our side.
The timing is PERFECT.
Much worse would have been if this news came out Nov 9th.
Sorry, but it’s true.
One more ping.
Trump would almost certainly both pony up for this and make arrangements for a tighter managed system in the future, so that even the QUESTION can’t arise. It’s waste and graft, but it shouldn’t be on the backs of the vets who actually performed a constitutional duty.
“Rather than forgive the loans, the California state government embarked on an audit of more than 17,000-—)
—
Yet the Dems want to forgive student loans.
Words fail me.
.
So the current Resident in the White House has a pen and a phone, issues executive orders and also grants Presidential pardons for criminals but he can’t handle this? Figures.
Peach
I really hope Trump runs with this story during his final stretch.
They put the wrong amount in the contract, yet it was signed by both parties? How on earth would they have any legal ground to stand on?
Ha! $6 billion missing from Hitlery’s state dept., no problem.
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