Officials tell Senate that illegal kickbacks cost the US at least $29m as part of national guard program to boost enlistment Associated Press in Washington theguardian.com, Tuesday 4 February 2014 17.43 EST The recruitment program began to improve enlistment during difficult years of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Photograph: Massoud Houssaini/AFP/Getty Images Hundreds…
that started about a decade ago, titled task force raptor, believed to be the army's largest investigation in history. the task at hand was to look into over 106,000 soldiers who were paid by the national guard recruiting assistance program and smaller counter part. the programs sought to increase enlistments by offering a cash reward for referrals and it did that, bringing in 150,000 new army recruits. but by 2012 it came under scrutiny due to the company that was contracted to run it and while the whole program was deemed illegal since the payments exceeded what congress allotted the army for bonuses. in comes in task force raptor to investigate possible fraud. while 137 soldiers ended up being charged, over 2500 soldiers were simply flagged or titled as part of the investigation. but the entry alone into the army's criminal investigation's log showed up like an arrest for felony when the information was uploaded into the fbi's criminal