Feds Indict Five People in San Antonio for Ripping Off Military Personnel's Benefits

Five people have been indicted in a San Antonio federal court for a scheme to steal millions of dollars in benefits from U.S. military personnel, Department of Justice officials said.

Robert Wayne Boling Jr., Frederick Brown, Torice Crawford, Allan Albert Kerr and Jongmin Seok face 14 charges including conspiracy, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday.

Brown, while working as a civilian employee at a U.S. Army facility, stole social security numbers and Department of Defense ID numbers from thousands of military personnel and gave them to accomplices who used the data to access victims' online accounts, authorities said.  

Among the sites the fraudsters accessed was a portal hosted by the Veterans Administration in the Western District of Texas, which serves San Antonio and territory spanning Central and West Texas, the indictment states.

Boling, Kerr and Seok were arrested in the Philippines, while Brown and Crawford were apprehended in the United States, authorities added.

“Our message is pretty simple,” U.S. Attorney John Bash said in a written statement. “It doesn’t matter where on this planet you reside. If you target our veterans, we’re coming for you. Our veterans were willing to risk everything to protect this Nation from foreign threats. Now it’s our turn to seek justice for them.”

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