I understand that as many as seven other people and entire companies are charged with the same bilking crime, and that Bales was employed as a financial advisor.
As a Stryker SSG, Bales would have required, at a minimum, a full SECRET security clearance.
All of this would have been impossible to hide in the security investigation, so I’d guess that he worked for a company that engaged in bad practices.
Just a guess. Joining the army generally is not the decision of choice for someone with a million bucks stashed away someplace.
Bales was a co-founder of the company, IIRC.
Since I work in the field I do have some first handle knowledge of the protocol.
No one is suggesting Bales ever had any money, just that he had a $1.4 million dollar judgement that unsurprisingly was not paid. In and of itself, it means nothing, but I suspect the glowing accounts of Sgt. Bales may have a flip side.