While assigned to the aircraft carrier George Washington, Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Handling) 3rd Class Camesha Kinamarie Walters stole $139,420 from taxpayers through a bogus housing scheme involving a husband who’s never even visited the United States.

A federal judge in Norfolk on Tuesday sentenced Walters, 37, to five months in prison following a plea deal on a sole felony theft charge after prosecutors dismissed three of the four criminal counts against her.

Walters was honorably discharged from the Navy on Feb. 8, according to both court and military records.

RELATED

As part of her pretrial agreement, Walters confessed to her role in a scheme that began in mid-2016, about 1½ years after she traveled to Bangladesh to marry her husband.

On July 18, 2016, Walters updated her Dependency Application/Records of Emergency Data paperwork to reflect her marriage but she listed him as an American citizen on her DEERS form and claimed that he lived in the pricey New York borough of Brooklyn.

That hiked the Basic Allowance for Housing to her pay, which was retroactively dated back to her wedding date, Feb. 15, 2015, according to the plea deal.

BAH is an untaxed allowance for service members based on duty location, pay grade and dependency status and it’s pegged to local housing markets.

The Norfolk-based Walters still needed special approval from her commanders to draw compensation for a dependent supposedly residing in New York and paying more than double the rent someone in Hampton Roads would encounter.

So on Aug. 20, 2016, she updated the dependent information on her NAVPERS 1070/613 Administrative Remarks Form — what’s usually termed a “Page 13” — to request payment for the Brooklyn bills.

Usually the Navy asks for proof of a mortgage or lease, plus utility bills, but Walters submitted a notarized letter from a property owner saying that her husband’s utility costs were included in the rent.

Superiors in her chain of command approved her Special Request/Authorization form for the BAH, plus a cost of living allowance kicker that reflected the high rent in Brooklyn.

But Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents determined her husband never arrived from Bangladesh and she pocketed at least $139,420 from the scam — money she now must pay back, according to the terms of her sentence.

“Each time she was required to recertify documents, she had a choice to make: truthfully represent her situation relative to her husband, and make her honest living; or lie, and steal," wrote Special Assistant U.S. Attorney David A. Layne in a legal filing.

"The military is somewhat unique in the broad benefits it affords its employees. The military also relies on its members to honestly convey their living and family situations in order to properly allocate those benefits and finite resources. When a service member lies in order to inflate their benefits, that member offends a system built on trust, and insults those colleagues who approach the system honestly.

"Ms. Walters inexcusably chose to lie and falsify her way to thousands of dollars in benefits she was never owed over an extended period of time.”

RELATED

Service records released to Navy Times showed that Walters enlisted in the Navy on Oct. 2, 2013, and she initially served on board the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt before reporting to the Norfolk-based George Washington on New Year’s Eve in 2015.

She became a petty officer on June 16, 2016, two days before she began her scheme.

Before her discharge, Walters received a Good Conduct Medal, a Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal and the Enlisted Aviation and Surface Warfare Specialist pins, accomplishments played up by her attorney — Assistant Federal Public Defender Lindsay J. McCaslin — while seeking mercy from the court.

In one legal filing, McCaslin wrote that Navy performance evaluations gave Walters an average score of 4.43, with superiors praising her for “attention to detail” that “was integral to her division," and calling her a “great asset” and “role model” who “greatly exceeded standards” for military bearing and character.

“Her command was not wrong in their assessments of her over the five years that she served. But sadly, good people can do bad things,” McCaslin wrote.

“They can make bad decisions. And Ms. Walters made a couple of very bad decisions and now has a felony conviction that will follow her for life. All she can do now is try to make things right, and she is committed to paying the restitution and will start ‘immediately.’”

McCaslin told the court that Walters was originally from St. James, Jamaica. She continued to support her mother, who now lives in the United States, but she was poised to pay back the government for the stolen funds, her attorney added.

That’s because Walters earned a college degree in the Navy and after exiting the sea service began courses at Manhattan College to pursue a graduate degree in organizational leadership, McCaslin wrote.

Share:
In Other News
Load More