Two former Army soldiers have each been sentenced to four years, nine months in federal prison for stealing $2.7 million from a government account while they were stationed in Saudi Arabia, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Friday.
Jasen Minter, 44, of Fayetteville, and Louis E. Nock, 48, of Orlando, Fla., were also each ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $2,216,617.97, Acting U.S. Attorney John Horn said in an emailed statement.
“This was an egregious abuse of trust by two former U.S. Army soldiers who had access to millions of dollars of government money,” Horn said. “Their conduct betrayed their trust and honor as service members and took substantial funds away from the United States Military Training Mission in Saudi Arabia.”
Minter and Nock served as the finance officer and deputy finance officer, respectively, for a training mission Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 2006 to 2007, according to investigators. Both had access to a U.S. government bank account that was held at the Saudi American Bank.
In June 2006, the two soldiers withdrew approximately $1.2 million in cash from the bank account and kept the money, sending boxes of cash back to the U.S., Horn’s office said. The following month, they made a second withdrawal of more than $1.5 million in cash.
Both Minter, a former captian, and Nock, a former sergeant first class, claimed that there were no missing funds when they left Saudi Arabia, but an audit confirmed the missing funds, according to investigators.
Minter pleaded guilty in November and Nock pleaded guilty in January, Horn said.
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