{"id":14094,"date":"2015-07-30T17:05:28","date_gmt":"2015-07-31T00:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=14094"},"modified":"2015-07-30T17:05:28","modified_gmt":"2015-07-31T00:05:28","slug":"13-u-s-soldiers-sentenced-for-bogus-military-recruiting-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=14094","title":{"rendered":"13 U.S. Soldiers Sentenced for Bogus Military Recruiting Scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"

TEXAS<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\"National<\/a>Thirteen members of the National Guard<\/strong> were sentenced for their roles in a wide-ranging bribery and fraud schemes that cost more than $170,000 in losses to the federal government, officials announced today.<\/p>\n

In 2005, the National Guard Bureau entered into a contract with Document and Packaging Broker Inc.<\/strong> to administer the Guard Recruiting Assistance Program or G-RAP.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Through this program, a soldier could receive bonus payments for referring a prospective recruit to join the National Guard.<\/p>\n

Based on certain milestones the soldier would receive payment through direct deposit into the participating soldier\u2019s designated bank account.\u00a0 To participate in the program, soldiers were required to create online accounts.<\/p>\n

Seven of the thirteen were sentenced last week in Houston.<\/p>\n

Jammie Martin<\/strong>, 38, of Katy, Texas, and Michelle Davis<\/strong>, 34, of Houston, were convicted in February of this year after a five-day trial of conspiracy, bribery, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.<\/p>\n

Martin was sentenced to serve 102 months in prison and Davis was sentenced to serve 57 months in prison.
\nVanessa Phillips<\/strong>, 37, of Houston, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of bribery and was sentenced to three years probation.<\/p>\n

Zaunmine \u201cOrlando\u201d Duncan<\/strong>, 39, of Douglasville, Georgia, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, one count of bribery and one count of aggravated identity theft.\u00a0 He was sentenced to serve 70 months in prison.<\/p>\n

Annika Chambers<\/strong>, 29, of Houston, and Lashae Hawkins<\/strong>, 29, of San Antonio, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of bribery.\u00a0 Chambers was sentenced to serve six months in prison.\u00a0 Hawkins received one year and one day in prison.<\/p>\n

Christopher Renfro<\/strong>, 27, of Houston, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, one count of bribery, one count of aggravated identity theft and two counts of wire fraud.\u00a0 He was sentenced to serve 36 months in prison.<\/p>\n

In June, six other members of the National Guard were sentenced for their roles in the scheme.<\/p>\n

Michael Rambaran<\/strong>, 52, of Pearland, Texas, plead guilty to one count of conspiracy, one count of bribery and one count of aggravated identity theft.\u00a0 He was sentenced to serve 60 months in prison.<\/p>\n

Edia Antoine<\/strong>, 29, and Ernest A. Millien<\/strong> III, 51, both of Houston, and Melanie Moraida<\/strong>, 35, of Pearland, plead guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of bribery.\u00a0 Each received 12 months and one day in prison.<\/p>\n

Elisha Ceja,<\/strong> 28, of Barboursville, West Virginia, and Kimberly Hartgraves,<\/strong> 30, of League City, Texas, plead guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of bribery.\u00a0 Ceja was sentenced to serve nine months in prison and Hartgraves received probation.<\/p>\n

\"Lee<\/a>U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosentha<\/strong>l also ordered all 13 defendants to pay restitution.<\/p>\n

According to officials, these are the other people who were sentenced:<\/strong><\/p>\n

One remaining defendant, Danielle Applin 29, of Harker Heights, Texas, who previously plead guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of bribery, is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 2.<\/p>\n

According to the evidence presented at trial and in connection with various guilty pleas, Phillips and Davis, both of whom participated in the G-RAP as recruiting assistants, conspired with Martin, a recruiter, to defraud the program by falsely claiming that they were responsible for referring potential soldiers to join the National Guard.<\/p>\n

The trial evidence showed that Martin used his position to obtain the names and Social Security numbers of potential soldiers which he provided to recruiting assistants so that they could use the information to obtain fraudulent recruiting referral bonuses.<\/p>\n

The evidence at trial showed that, in exchange for the information, Martin, who organized and led the scheme, personally received about $15,000 in payments from the recruiting assistants.<\/p>\n

This scheme resulted in more than $30,000 in losses to the National Guard Bureau.<\/p>\n

In a separate scheme that resulted in an additional $70,000 in losses, recruiting assistants Antoine, Millien, Moraida and Renfro admitted to paying Rambaran, a recruiter who organized and led the scheme, for the personal information of potential soldiers.<\/p>\n

They then used that information to obtain fraudulent bonuses by falsely claiming they referred those individuals to join the National Guard.<\/p>\n

Rambaran admitted that, in exchange for the recruit information, he personally received a total of about $29,000 in payments from the recruiting assistants.<\/p>\n

In his guilty plea, Duncan, a recruiter, admitted he personally received about $24,000 in payments from recruiting assistants in exchange for personal information of potential soldiers.<\/p>\n

Those recruiting assistants \u2013 Ceja, Chambers, Hartgraves and Hawkins \u2013 admitted to paying Duncan for the information and using it to obtain fraudulent bonuses by falsely claiming they referred those individuals to join the National Guard.<\/p>\n

This scheme resulted in another $70,000 in losses to the National Guard Bureau.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TEXAS Thirteen members of the National Guard were sentenced for their roles in a wide-ranging bribery and fraud schemes that cost more than $170,000 in losses to the federal government, officials announced…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3],"tags":[1265,1499],"class_list":["post-14094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-main-slider","category-u-s-department-of-justice","tag-army-national-guard","tag-recruiting-scandal"],"yoast_head":"\n13 U.S. Soldiers Sentenced for Recruiting Scheme<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"TEXAS Thirteen members of the National Guard were sentenced for their roles in a wide-ranging bribery and fraud schemes that cost more than $170,000 in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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