One criminal's action cause other veterans to suffer

Veterans told to repay bonuses to government after fraud case
ABC
Rob McMillan
October 3, 2013

BEAUMONT, Calif. (KABC) -- The flag still flies outside the Beaumont home of Master Sgt. Richard Mosely. But for this veteran of the California Army National Guard, his feelings toward all things red, white and blue just aren't the same.

"I still get chills when I hear the national anthem, but when I hear people talk about the military or see commercials on TV about the National Guard, it hurts," said Mosely.

It hurts because after being paid more than $22,000 in enlistment bonuses over the years, and then coming back from a grueling deployment in Iraq with post traumatic stress disorder, he got a letter last August from the Army saying the government might need him to pay all of that money back.

"My heart dropped," he said.

So how did this happen? It turns out the person in charge of doling out all those bonuses, a former master sergeant, is now doing prison time after being convicted of fraud, for misappropriating millions of dollars in taxpayer money and giving out scores of bonuses to people who shouldn't have received them.

But because that person shredded so much paperwork, the National Guard can't tell who got legitimate bonuses and who didn't.

To help sort out this big mess, the National Guard has put together an Incentives Task Force, based in Sacramento, whose job is to find out who may have wrongly received money and get it back.
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