Defense secretary halts US grab-back of soldiers’ bonuses

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced Wednesday that the Pentagon was suspending its efforts to claw back enlistment bonuses improperly awarded a decade ago to 9,700 members of the California National Guard for re-enlisting during wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Carter made his statement after members of Congress from both parties, including House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, condemned the Pentagon’s efforts to recoup the money and promised a legislative fix when they returned to a lame-duck session after the Nov. 8 election.

Carter did not address a demand by several members of California’s congressional delegation that soldiers who innocently accepted their bonuses be reimbursed for any money they’ve already paid back to the government.

More than $15 million in bonuses were paid fraudulently or mistakenly by state National Guard recruiters under pressure to meet recruitment goals during the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

After a federal investigation, the California National Guard’s former incentive manager, Army Master Sgt. Toni Jaffe, pleaded guilty in 2011 to filing $15.2 million in fraudulent claims and was sentenced to more than two years in prison.

The fake claims included cash bonuses for re-enlistment and repayment of student loans and in some cases amounted to tens of thousands of dollars.

[...] other soldiers said they innocently accepted bonuses that they had no idea were improperly awarded, fought in combat zones, and then felt profoundly betrayed when the Pentagon demanded the money be returned, including any accumulated interest, or face tax liens.

In a few instances, former Guard members were forced to mortgage homes and take other extreme measures to pay it back.