7 Army Reservists (incl two NOPD officers) indicted for funeral detail fraud
Screencap courtesy of WDSU
The above photo are the two New Orleans Police officers (and Army Reservists of the 377th Theater Sustainment Command) that were indicted along with five other Army Reserve members for conspiring to defraud the government. They claimed to have performed honor guard duties at veteran funerals that apparently never happened.
From NOLA.com;
Two New Orleans police officers were indicted Friday on charges of helping five other Army reservists steal more than $100,000 by charging the military for working as honor guards at funerals that never took place.
…
Prosecutors said detective Chantelle Davis and officer Lynea Sanders were among seven Army reservists benefitting from the scam. They said former Army pay technician Christopher O’Connor submitted reimbursement requests for various military funeral honors between 2013 and 2016 in his own name and for Davis, Sanders, Leroy Daniels Jr., Derrick Branch, Cody Francis and Terrance Howard.
But the ceremonies never happened, prosecutors alleged. They say the defendants received these payments for work not performed:
Sanders, 41 — $22,505
O’Connor, 40 — $18,825
Branch, 36 — $15,469
Howard, 54 — $13,586
Daniels, 45 — $11,694
Francis, 31 — $11,378
Davis, 35 — $8,399
I also wonder if they defrauded the city by taking paid military leave for their duties. We’ve seen that plenty of times before too. According to the article, both officers have been on desk duty since September, when the department was made aware of the federal investigation. The department is conducting an internal review as well and while the federal case is going will remain on desk duty.
“We take allegations of this nature very seriously,” NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said in a statement late Friday. “We cannot allow the dishonest actions these officer are accused of to jeopardize the trust our citizens have in this department.”
He must be unaware of the history of the NOPD (or here or here).
Thanks to ninja for sending this one in to us.
Category: "Teh Stoopid", Army, Crime, ninja, Police
Let all these fine folks enjoy the prison life in LA. Is Angola still open?. Maybe they can get some time in Leavenworth as well.
Thanks, Mason. We have the best ninjas.
$22k? Someone got greedy. I wonder what tripped off the investigation? I bet any and all claimed OT for the NOPD is going to be reviewed as well.
They thought they were a bunch of financial Ninjas.
They were neither a successful or unsuccessful hedge fund nor Reddit WallStreetBets Bois.
FAIL!!!
(*Fucktards!*)
“We take allegations of this nature very seriously,” NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said…
So then, why have then been on desk duty since September and not yet indicted?
The usual New Orleans Affirmative Action is alive and well and hard at work I see.
Slap on the wrist and asked to make some restitution to the City.
May they burn in Hell as the Barbed Cock of Satan torments their Souls for all eternity!
3 likely reasons:
1. Federal charges, not local
2. Innocent until proven guilty
3. Likely CBA considerations
If they are found guilty, I hope they all rot in prison.
Name edited to protect PII.
AW1
1 and 3 are plausible. 2 is a non-starter (Federal charges have zero to do with any state/local investigation for fraud in terms of abuse of military leave provisions – many if not most police/local government jobs have a provision for paid leave for NG duty). And 3 doesn’t really adequately explain why they haven’t been suspended without pay now that they’ve been indicted on Federal felony charges. Seems to me that indictment on Federal felony charges would be sufficient grounds for suspension without pay (they can always be reinstated with back pay if found innocent at trial).
I’m also not exactly willing to give the NOPD much of a break here. Best I can tell, the NOPD has had a poor reputation since at least the 1960s with respect to corruption and political influence.
I’m sure you’re right.
What I find more disturbing is, does that mean multiple veterans didn’t get funeral honors as they deserved because of these scumbags?
My last unit had to do quite a few funeral details for veterans, we’d get a name, location, next of kin getting the flag, time and POC. If they faked all that, it’s a little less egregious, but if they purposely skipped out on funeral details to make money without the effort, then piss on them.
I don’t think they blew off real funerals, mainly because if they did, I’m sure someone would have gotten an ear full from the family of the deceased, and a shit storm like a funeral detail repeatedly not showing for funerals would have rolled down a very steep hill.
I think their hook up was just fabricating the paper work so they could get paid.
“Theater Sustainment Command”?
What, they make popcorn, see that all of the soda machines are full and the Ju-Ju beans are fully stocked in the local movie entertainment building?
I’m guessing they were also stellar Reservists too.
/sarc
Hack Stone’s big break into the entertainment industry was being on a working party cleaning up the base theater while Hack was waiting for a class to start in Basic Electronics Course. Quite the resume enhancer, to also include Eco-friendly Natural Transportation Waste Management (shoveling horse shit at the 29 Stumps Base Stables), Architectural Design (building those A-Frames out at Camp Wilson), Terrain Enhancement (working at the Base Golf Course). If you attend the next This Ain’t Hell Beer Summit in the National Capital Region, he can recount the events of three fateful days in January of 1982. Warning, this sea story contains numerous F-Bombs, but are integral to the story.
TINS “There I was, knee deep in phuqueing popcorn containers, my phuqueing boots stuck to the phuqueing floor by phuqueing spilled CoCola….”
“building those A-Frames out at Camp Wilson”
Interesting. As a reserve dude, I had the opportunity to stay as a guest at your A-frames in 97 and 99 (fortunately reserve CAX was only 2 weeks.) After getting commissioned, I stayed at Camp Wilson for a double CAX (Jan-March of 2002). At that time they were tearing down the A-frames and putting up what they called K-spans (looks like fancy Quonset huts to me). I came back in 2007 as a part of the support staff for the training that goes on out there and there were just about 5 of the A-frames left. Funny thing was that one of them was the one I stayed in in 1999! They were torn down while I was there.
Seems those A-frames of yours had a 35 year run. Not bad!
Try DLI in Monterrey. Last I heard they were still using “temporary” buildings from WWII as classrooms.
Fuze:
I pulled a double CAX in 98 from June-August time frame as a young Lance Criminal. Went back again as a salty SSgt in 2012 and was in the K-spans. Camp Wilson was like night/day…the only thing that was CONSTANT was the “Warriors Club”. Those were the days….
Double CAX in the summer?! Yuck! My summer CAXs were two weeks and that was plenty. My double CAX was in the winter – but that didn’t save you from suffering. It got cold as balls out there! Or as a master sergeant I had was fond of saying, “Colder than a witches tit in a brass bra doing pushups in the snow!”
Between 1997 and 2010 (went once while at SYSCOM) I did see a lot of changes – mostly for the better. I’ve spoken with a few of the old timer guys (Hack is included in that group!) who say they went out there and there was nothing but desert. Probably pretty livable (relatively) today. Those that bitch about what it looks like now never sat in one of those tin A-Frames in the summer for a couple of weeks, I wager!!
All things considered, no one went tits up. We had a 96 in Vegas in between, so that was pretty dope. Yeah: We literally ROASTED in those damn A-Frames in the July/August time frame. It got to be 120-140 in by mid day. Definitely got my ass ready for Afghanistan temps a decade later. Lol.
From 98 to 12, they tried to make it a little more….habitable? Went from sand floors in the A Frames to those concrete pads for the K-spans. Hard encased chow hall which had legit ACs in it instead of a giant tent….
Ah…memories. Glad im retired now, its a young man’s game.
“Glad im retired now, its a young man’s game.”
Truer words were never spoken (I retired in 2019 so I’m still trying to pass MREs, as it were.)
Remember the open air chow “hall” with just the light screen over it?! (At this point, some guy is saying, ” You had a SCREEN? We used ta dream of a chow hall screen!”)
I was FAPed to the MVSD (Mojave Viper Support Detachment for those that want to know) for the first 4 months of 2007. I got to work in the HQ K-spans in the middle of Camp Wilson. Those were actually insulated and heated/ACed. Not too bad. I had a rental car and I lived on mainside right next to the O-Club so life was good!
FWIW: a Theater Sustainment Command is the senior Army logistics HQ within a theater of operations. The Army has 6: 3 active (1st TSC, 8th TSC, and 21st TSC), two USAR (79th TSC and 377th TSC), and one ARNG (167th TSC).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theater_Sustainment_Command
Had to do a stint in the sustainment brigade as the brigade PMO….man talk about a substandard bunch of shit birds and clowns…all transportation, mechanics, water purification , supply…..you know what I’m talking about
In my VT NG days a funeral detail paid as a MUTA 2 or a days pay, even if it was only a couple hours. If you did two funerals it was a MUTA 4 pay. So it is good/honorable money and it was nice to get out of the factory for day.
I wonder if a fair chunk of those amounts noted above was fraudulently-obtained drill pay.
Send three people but submit pay for ten,,
Disgusting.
Gonna leave it at that. Because, well, I just don’t want to clutter up the universe with what would spill out were I to do otherwise. Yeah, this story angers me pretty much more than all others. For a lot of reasons. It helps a little that they probably did not actually short any real vet of the honors he or she earned.
Momma always said, “If you aint got anything nice to say, shut your mouth.” She’s gone, but ima heed that advice. I pulled Independent/I&I duty from 2001-2008 and did an metric SHIT TON of funeral honors: WW2 vets all the way through to KIAs in Iraq/Asskrackistan. Being on the Active side, it was a collateral duty which we did begrudginly, but with no ill will, as it was understood that it was funeral HONORS.
For some dickheads like this to fake it for profit? Fuck them with a cactus drenched in salt. Bunch of assholes.
It appears to sound like a DOUBLE DIP for ZERO work.
Take the day off of FT.
Never do PT.
Get paid for both.
Double Ugh.
Or, (Dick Dastardly) – Drat. And Double Drat.
Yep. My VFW post does a LOT of funerals. Most of us are too old to still be doing it, but the option for us is that all a veteran might get is a flag folded and maybe the playing of TAPS otherwise. And maybe not that. We do the rifle volley and bugle for every veteran we hear of being buried in our community. We are prepared to do a complete service including the folding of their flag when necessary. It is our honor and duty to perform this service for our brothers and sisters.
That this bunch of lowlifes would dishonor themselves and give us all the middle finger is beyond my usual vocabulary.
We did it on red cycle at Bliss. Took a lot of pride in it especially when the SGM. called us the Old Guard.
Fuck them sideways with my Ex-Wife wearing a sandpaper strap-on…