By How come I have the feeling this is just the tip of the iceberg for USFK travel fraud?:
A court-martial began here Monday for a U.S. Army administrative worker at U.S. Forces Korea headquarters accused of faking four temporary duty assignments and charging the military more than $6,000 in travel expenses.
Sgt. 1st Class Crystal Lloyd, pleaded not guilty to all charges that she filed false travel claims for trips she took to Washington, D.C., and the New York City area between 2004 and 2006. The charges included four counts of larceny, four counts of presenting false claims and one count of making a false official statement for failing to disclose on her re-enlistment papers involvement in a previous civil court case. [Ashely Rowland - Stars & Stripes]
Make sure to read the whole thing, but if she was getting away with government travel fraud so easily and was helping another soldier commit travel fraud I just have to wonder who else has been committing travel fraud as well? It will be interesting to see how this turns out but it is interesting all the name dropping of General LaPorte in the article.
12:14 pm on October 23rd, 2007 1
Hey, no receipts are needed for anything under $75… I guess she should have kept her claims under 75 bucks. LOL
1:03 pm on October 23rd, 2007 2
I guess being command sponsored in Area II isn't enough of a scam for these types….
1:29 pm on October 23rd, 2007 3
What's interesting is how this sort of fraud is unlikely to happen with private employers. My brother works for a Fortune 500 company, and after 9/11, the company severely clamped down on all business travel; all requested trips had to go through a VP. He had enough trouble getting approval for legitimate travel. Fraud would be virtually impossible. Are promotions tied to cost control in any serious way? Doesn't seem so, judging by all the posts on waste, fraud, and abuse.
4:21 pm on October 23rd, 2007 4
Mark, snide as your comment is, please explain. I'm not sure how command sponsorship could be a scam, in my simple mind everyone deployed to Korea should be command sponsored which is not a war zone, and is reasonable that families might deploy to just like Germany. Hey SSG Schmitt thanks for your year in Iraq we are sending you to Korea, feel free to pay for your family move there, and feel more free to pay for the 10,000 a year tuition at Seoul American HS if you can get a seat for your son, and remember we care about you.
1:17 am on October 24th, 2007 5
How dare anyone sully the fine name of the great General (and my personal hero) Leon LaPorte! This superb American has been disparaged enough, and I’ll no longer stand for it. Sure, he kinda attempted to trample DoD civilian and contractor constitutional rights, but he meant well. That is the important thing. While most USFK commanders move on to such jobs as Joint Chiefs of Staff, this man served selflessly, and quietly retired to San Antonio with his beautiful wife of many years. Sure, there were challenges, everything from the Chosen Gift Shop burning down to having to rein in the unruly contractor population, but civil rights be damned, he tried. That’s what really counts, he tried, and he will always be remembered for it.
2:16 am on October 24th, 2007 6
General LaPorte will be remembered that is for sure, especially with this corruption case the way they keep dropping his name. Wouldn't it be something if General LaPorte was brought back to Korea to testify at the trial?
Pavlov3,
I agree with everything you said and hopefully if the relocation to Camp Humphreys ever happens accompanied family tours should be the norm in Korea.
Sonagi,
It actually is very hard to get legitimate travel orders in the Army but the person in question was the USFK personnel clerk responsible for cutting the orders and if true she was forging the orders to allow her to go on travel she should not have been authorized to go on. If she was pulling this off than her supervisor who would be whoever is the head USFK adjutant at the time should have noticed the shady happenings.
3:35 am on October 24th, 2007 7
Pavlov3, command sponsorship in and of itself is not a scam, as long as it is distributed with equity and oversight. However, if you dig deep enough to realize that most of the slots go to J/G/S-1 types of certain ethnicity, and that these same people have a work ethic that is prone to hustle, you see where it turns into a scam.
Do a survey of percentage of command sponsored personnel by race and MOS and you'll see what I'm getting at, for the percentages are skewed.
This is the tip of the iceberg, and it will not change because the people who own the admnin duties are the ones perpetrating the fraud.
5:12 am on October 24th, 2007 8
While I can't address travel scams in USFK, I can bring up the recent trials and convictions (in some cases with sentences eceeding 15 years) for school administrators in several Dallas area districts.
Similarly, at my company, all expenses need to be pre-approved by one's immediate manager–and even though receipts are not requireed for most items under $75.00, we have a variety of contracts with US and foreign corporations and governments whose auditors take periodic sweeps through the books. It's too complicated to keep "the real books" and "the okay books". And the auditors are a lot sharper at spotting trends and fraud…
With all of the work required to successfully (for a time) pull off a scam, it would be easier to get a second job that paid as much.
4:31 am on October 25th, 2007 9
I am not surprised that there is a case of alleged travel fraud within the USFK headquarters. What irritates me more than anything is the fact that "Angry Soldier" sent an anonymous tip that some fraudulant activity was going on. Angry Soldier, who, in my opinion, is none other than the soldier's supervisor, was not professional enough to make the accusations to her face. Even when it went to trial, Angry Soldier was no where to be found. What ever happened to the right to face your accuser?
The CID agents that conducted the investigation seemed to have an agenda to follow that may have been influenced by those in USFK office. Any statements made that were in defencse of the accused were ignored and initially not presented to the defense counsel. One can only wonder why that would be since all evidence is required to be shared with the prosecutor and the defense counsel.
I worked on Gen LaPorte's staff for several years and knew SFC Lloyd personally. Although I never went TDY myself I do know for a fact that on at least one occasion that she did accompany the Commander on official travel. I also know that there were numerous personnel that I believe had no business traveling. Exactly how many commo personnel does the Commander need? I wonder how many times personnel in the travel party went on leave as soon as they arrived in the States on TDY orders and returned on TDY orders when the trip was concluded?
Did SFC Lloyd travel on forged travel orders? Did she defraud the government out of $6,000. A jury of her peers has concluded she is not guilty of all charges.
Talk about fraud, waste and abuse. How many tax dollars were spent on the the investigation? How much money was spent to fly all the witnesses here to testify? Why did Stars and Stripes not mention the fact that one of the witnesses was a General Officer flown here to testify? Here's a thought. Why not charge tally up what was spent on this failed attempt to convict a soldier of crimes she was acquitted of and file fraud charges against the infamous "Angry Soldier"?
Oh, and as a side note I hear that the Warrant Officer that the supervisor of SFC Lloyd wrote her a relfief for cause NCOER in June. That was some four or so months after she had been reasssigned to another office and no longer worked for him. In the write up I believe that he annotated she was being relieved because she had committed fraud against the government. Wow! Talk about being guilty until proven innocent. It almost sounds like a case of libel to me.
In defense of hte USFK office. They had to investigate to avoid the apearance of a cover up. I simply believe that they went about it the wrong way. I hope that since accussations of wrongdoing have been made that someone follows up and audits the books a little more closely.
Is that a $10,000 home entertainment system, donated by LG, in the Commander's quarters? Ahhhhh! Good Neighbor. VERY good neighbor.
2:00 am on October 26th, 2007 10
[...] USFK Sergeant First Class charged with fraud has been found innocent of the [...]
12:35 pm on September 3rd, 2008 11
CrayZ1, guilty until the accused proves thier innocence? That is SOP for military "justice".
8:23 am on September 17th, 2009 12
FYI SFC Lloyd was found innocent during her first trial because she knew everyone on the pannel. Not so luck though at Fort Lee VA she was found guilty of all charges! She received 6 months confinement and a bad conduct discharge. I know SFC Lloyd personally so before you talk you should know what you are talking about. What E-7 can afford to shop at Tiffany's, and other high end stores on a daily basis.
4:25 am on January 13th, 2010 13
I'm probably the only one on this string of emails who has known SFC Lloyd over 10+ years, and before you start passing judgment, we've all made bad decisions/choices, just maybe they are still hidden, or we haven't pissed someone off enough for them to expose it. SFC Lloyd does not have children, doesn't own/rent a residence, did not have a car payment, and invested wisely, so she COULD very well afford to buy at Tiffany's and other high end stores. In fact, she has always, even before her assignment in Korea, shopped at high end stores. Bottom line, it's unfortunate that her long Army career has ended like this, because outside of this incident, SFC Lloyd was a good Soldier…
3:44 pm on January 14th, 2010 14
Angry Soldier,
When and where did this take place? She is still listed in AKO as SFC on active duty…
2:20 pm on January 18th, 2010 15
Angry Soldier,
When and where did this take place? She is still listed in AKO as SFC on active duty…
6:40 am on December 15th, 2010 16
I knew SFC Crytal Lloyd when she first arrived in Korea – then SGT Crystal Lloyd. We were best friends. She did like high end things but she always kept secrets to keep this high end lifestyle. I am not going to divulge her business here but let's just say — she kept secrets. We are no longer friends now and I havent heard anything from here until I read this post. I was truly sorry to hear this.
9:17 am on December 15th, 2010 17
Does anyone remember the old AFN SAEDA commercial about reporting soldiers who are living beyond their means? How about the "unusual" unnannounced trips they were taking?
I knew a PAC clerk who went to Leavenworth because he was selling "Leave" to people, take leave, DA31, got lost not processed.
MARK #7, I'm shocked
Do you mean to say the racial breakdown of say a Infantry or Tank Company is askew from demgraphic norms…..I'm SHocked 
11:11 am on December 15th, 2010 18
Ole Tanker #17, Your last line, I'm still smiling at that one
11:25 am on December 15th, 2010 19
Leon, man, I am so sorry about the Contractors
They must have been wrong, because everytime they had a radio show question and answer, the 8th Army CSM (whathisname)stood behind the Command Line everytime 
"THEY WILL OBEY THE CURFEW BECAUSE IT IS THE ORDER!" 
11:40 am on December 15th, 2010 20
CSM Wheeler.
6:43 pm on December 15th, 2010 21
#19…. CSM Wheeler??? He was my very first platoon sergeant at Fort Riley after OSUT.