2 Minnesota Guard members, 1 former member indicted in alleged kickback scam

Two members of the Minnesota National Guard and one former Guard member have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Minneapolis for receiving kickbacks as part of a nationwide recruiting scam that plagued the military after it launched a new program to spur recruitment 10 years ago.

The two men and one woman illegally obtained 33 bonuses, according to their indictments on wire fraud charges.

Charged were 1st Lt. Timothy Roland Stafford, 29, of Duluth, accused of fraud in kickbacks on the enlistment of 25 soldiers; Pvt. Terry Ashley Wosmek, 27, of Duluth, accused of taking kickbacks for four recruits; and former National Guardsman Quinton Jones, 31, now of Hollywood, Fla., accused of kickbacks on four enlistments. Stafford and Wosmek are Guard members and Jones is a former Guard member, according to a Guard official contacted Wednesday.

The recruiting scandal, which spread nationally, was disclosed last year. The Minnesota National Guard confirmed in February 2014 that it was investigating three Guard members.

In a statement last year, Minnesota Guard spokesman Kevin Olson said, "We have been working closely with military and civilian authorities to pursue prosecution and restitution where fraud was committed, and to discipline those who were negligent in their duties."

In a statement on Wednesday, Olson added, "We acknowledge that fraudulent activity took place with this program and continue to work with authorities to identify the accountable individuals and take appropriate action."

The Minnesota case has represented a small part of the scandal. Nationally, an Army audit and other investigations found that as much as $29 million may have been wrongly paid to people who claimed to have assisted in recruitment.

The assistants received $1,000 for each person who signed a contract to enlist and a second $1,000 when the nominee shipped out to basic training. If the nominee had prior military service, the assistant received a single $2,000 or $4,000 bonus. The program was in addition to the uniformed recruiters who work out of storefronts and receive no bonuses. But the system became rife with fraud.

As part of the scam, uniformed recruiters tipped off Guard members of the names of individuals who had expressed an interest in joining the Guard. The Guard members pretended they had made the initial contact with the recruits, submitted their names to the Alabama company, received a bonus, then split it with the uniformed recruiters. The assistants never even met the people they claimed responsibility for getting to enlist, the indictments said.

The bonus program terminated in 2012.

Based on the indictments, it appears that the Minnesota Guard members received 32 $1,000 bonuses and one $2,000 bonus between 2008 and 2011.

The uniformed recruiters are not named in the indictments, referred to only as "Participants A, B and C." The U.S. attorney's office declined on Wednesday to comment on the case or say whether the participants will also face charges.