California Stealin’

MSG Toni Jaffe’s job with the California Army National Guard was to give away money; from 1986 until she retired last year she disbursed the federally subsidized student-loan repayments and cash bonuses that are for attracting new recruits and encouraging existing members to re-enlist.
Apparently she made a lot of friends on her job—some really close friends. You see, as much as $100 million went to soldiers who didn’t qualify for the benefit, some of whom got tens of thousands of dollars more than the program allows. Many of these people were officers.
She was busted when the people who replaced her identified the huge gaps between authorized and actual expenditures and reported to a federal auditor. I wonder why she didn’t think that would happen.
Of course she denies any wrong doing; everything she did was proper, says the retired sergeant. The auditor was so shocked by the extent of the fraud that he made his report and then became a whistle-blower, secretly contacting the FBI and IRS. He said he was “ashamed to wear the same uniform as those who steal taxpayers’ funds or protect thieves;” I agree with him.
I also wonder how she could have gone over 20 years without an audit. I know that my home state of California’s state government is and has been out of control, but, well, wow!