A serious was kicked out for stealing narcotics. Then he took $820,000 from the Air Power.

Lt. Col. Brandon Bailey mentioned he retired from the Air Power after almost 20 years of distinguished service to his nation, with a fight tour in Afghanistan below his belt and a Purple Coronary heart and Bronze Star pinned to his chest.

Bailey mentioned he spent years as a search-and-rescue and battlefield medication specialist. He mentioned fight wounds precipitated a complete and everlasting incapacity that has stopped him from working, following his medical discharge from the Air Power.

However it isn’t true.

For the previous two years, Bailey has been the topic of a federal investigation into a fancy net of economic and chapter fraud he spun over the course of a decade.

The previous main was expelled from the Air Power, following a 2010 court-martial conviction for illicit drug use and theft whereas stationed in Iraq. The choice aimed to strip him of his pay, advantages and entry to Veterans Affairs assets.

Then, unbeknownst to the Air Power, the service continued sending him paychecks — for seven years. So Bailey cashed in.

All informed, he stole about $1.5 million — together with round $820,000 from the Air Power — from an array of federal businesses and monetary establishments whereas getting paid for consulting and instructing jobs below false pretenses, federal prosecutors mentioned.

He hustled the chapter system and certain laundered cash by means of his mom’s checking account, based on courtroom paperwork.

“He by no means medically retired from the Air Power. At no level throughout his navy service did Brandon Leross Bailey obtain the Purple Coronary heart medal,” federal prosecutors wrote in a 2020 indictment.

Beneath a plea deal the DOJ struck with Bailey and his attorneys, the federal government plans to drop all however two of the 13 counts of misconduct towards him. He pleaded responsible in June 2021 to stealing cash from the Air Power and to chapter fraud.

His sentencing listening to is scheduled for Wednesday at U.S. District Court docket within the Southern District of Alabama in Cell.

Federal attorneys suggest the courtroom sentence Bailey to 3 years of supervised launch, to repay between $1.5 million and $3.5 million to these he defrauded, and to show over his four-bedroom, three-bath home in Maine, his Ford F-150 pickup truck, a number of properties in Alabama and the contents of 11 financial institution and funding accounts.

“Bailey is a serial fraudster for whom a low-end pointers sentence is cheap,” the Justice Division wrote in a Jan. 11 memo.

James Davis, a legislation enforcement coordinator with the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace in Cell, informed Air Power Instances March 17 the federal government will not be looking for jail time as a result of Bailey already faces huge losses.

A federal choose will make the ultimate name on whether or not Bailey will spend time in jail, how a lot cash he should return and different phrases of his punishment at a Wednesday sentence listening to. The utmost penalty he might obtain totals 15 years in jail adopted by six years of supervised launch, a $500,000 advantageous, one other particular charge of $200 and restitution of stolen funds.

He’s awaiting sentencing in Conecuh County Jail in southern Alabama, based on his lawyer, Brian Lockwood. Lockwood declined to touch upon Bailey’s behalf March 17.

Who’s Brandon Bailey?

Based on Bailey’s Air Power Personnel Heart document, obtained by Air Power Instances March 18, he joined the Reserve in 2001 and was positioned on energetic responsibility in 2004. He turned a flight crew nurse, rising to the rank of main.

The key deployed to Joint Base Balad in Iraq in August 2008, the place he labored because the 332nd Expeditionary Operations Help Squadron’s medical crew director. He led a five-person crew of medical technicians and nurses on medical transport missions, treating illnesses from contracted ailments to battle wounds.

In that job, Bailey was accountable for protecting observe of a field of provides loaned from the pharmacy for medical evacuations. He was additionally accountable for accounting for any medicines used throughout these missions.

Then he obtained bizarre.

Bailey’s unnamed roommate in mid-October 2008 observed him appearing unusually and speaking to nonexistent folks, based on Air Power courtroom paperwork.

“He additionally witnessed [Bailey] draw a managed substance right into a syringe and inject himself within the arm,” the service mentioned. “A subsequent search of the appellant’s locker and nightstand revealed an [aeromedical evacuation box], a number of empty vials of varied narcotics, syringes and needles stashed within the appellant’s locker and nightstand.”

Bailey’s urine examined optimistic for a number of managed substances. Forward of his court-martial, he admitted to wrongfully utilizing meperidine, morphine, oxycodone and lorazepam between Sept. 20 and Oct. 20, 2008, and possessing meperidine, morphine sulphate, oxycodone and acetaminophen, diazepam and phenobarbital.

He additionally stole promethazine and meperidine from Sept. 3 to the day he was caught on Oct. 20, 2008, the Air Power mentioned.

Bailey claimed his actions had been “pretty attributable” to accidents suffered whereas deployed, however the courtroom mentioned he offered no supporting proof and a psychological evaluate concluded he was sane.

He was convicted of 13 counts of wrongful drug use, possession and appropriation, in addition to theft, in a common court-martial in July 2010. The navy choose at Shaw Air Power Base, South Carolina, sentenced him to dismissal from the Air Power and three months of confinement. He appealed the sentence and was positioned on depart whereas the navy justice system deliberated.

Forward of a remaining ruling, Bailey acknowledged his Air Power profession was over.

“I’m doing nicely. Out of the Air Power,” he wrote in a public Fb touch upon Oct. 25, 2010. “Attempting to determine what to do [with] my life.”

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Almost three years later, the Air Power Court docket of Prison Appeals denied his criticism that the choice besides him from the service was too harsh.

Bailey’s “willful conduct didn’t dwell as much as the excessive commonplace of accountability anticipated of commissioned officers,” courtroom clerk Steven Lucas wrote in a March 2013 determination.

“Though the appellant’s earlier contributions throughout his profession are glorious, he engaged in a course of conduct that included stealing medicine entrusted to him for the usage of his comrades wounded in fight and inflicting himself to behave in a weird and inappropriate method,” Lucas mentioned.

The Air Power formally separated Bailey as a serious on Oct. 1, 2013, within the officer equal of a dishonorable discharge.

Bailey “falsely portrayed himself as a retired Air Power nurse, a fight rescue officer, a veteran of a fight tour in Afghanistan and a Purple Coronary heart medal recipient, amongst different misrepresentations,” Justice Division attorneys wrote within the December 2020 indictment.

Air Power information present he obtained 20 navy awards and decorations throughout his service. They embrace largely typical awards honoring time in service and participation in abroad operations just like the Iraq Warfare, or ribbons which might be routinely handed out in sure conditions, similar to on the finish of fundamental navy coaching.

“We now have no document of this officer being awarded the Bronze Star or Purple Coronary heart. These decorations will not be listed in his document and they aren’t listed on his DD214″ separation paperwork, Personnel Heart spokesperson Mike Dickerson mentioned.

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After the Air Power

Bailey was ready to make use of his inaccurate place on the Air Power’s payroll as a springboard for a number of different schemes.

On-line Air Power personnel information nonetheless confirmed him on energetic responsibility standing, so Bailey continued to go online to get annual W-2 kinds and month-to-month pay statements that appeared to point out his correct earnings and employment standing. He often obtained care at navy well being amenities in violation of Air Power guidelines, based on indictment papers.

“He falsely portrayed himself publicly as an energetic responsibility Air Power member and relied on Air Power paperwork to open financial institution accounts and procure loans, bank cards and different objects of worth that he was not lawfully entitled to obtain,” federal attorneys wrote.

The fraud allegations span Social Safety incapacity advantages, a Division of Veterans Affairs dwelling mortgage, grant funding for farmers by means of the Division of Agriculture, scholar mortgage forgiveness by means of the Division of Training, credit score and loans from JPMorgan Chase & Co., Barclays Financial institution and SunTrust Financial institution, amongst others, and part-time workers pay at Alabama’s Samford College.

The federal authorities suspected Bailey laundered his Air Power earnings by means of his mom, Janice Bailey, who helped him handle a rental property in Alabama.

“Whereas Brandon Bailey owned the property, the hire checks had been made payable to Janice,” an FBI search warrant request mentioned. “She would endorse the checks and Brandon Bailey would deposit them into his USAA checking account.”

Brandon despatched greater than $26,000 to a USAA account in his mom’s title, which was arrange utilizing his personal e-mail deal with. In January 2014, Janice Bailey transferred $25,000 from her account to a brand new USAA mutual fund account, based on courtroom paperwork.

Brandon additionally paid his mother and father 11 checks totaling over $17,000 from April 2016 to March 2019, the FBI agent famous.

Bailey has admitted to one in every of 4 counts of bankruptcy-related fraud, through which he didn’t record almost $70,000 in earnings as a part of his property when he filed for chapter in February 2019. The lawsuit additionally alleges he hid tons of of 1000’s of {dollars} in insurance coverage cash he obtained after a home hearth, and the assessed and sale values of a number of parcels of land.

His property ought to have included about $34,000 he earned whereas working for Samford College, a small, personal Christian faculty within the Birmingham suburbs.

At Samford, which claims Bailey as a 2005 alum, he met with navy veterans enrolled within the nursing program to assist them apply for training and incapacity advantages from the VA. The varsity’s program the place Bailey labored helps fast-track veterans into careers as registered nurses.

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“I’m basically a translator and an advocate. I wish to be sure that the veteran and the college are talking the identical language,” Bailey mentioned within the summer time 2016 problem of Samford’s journal. “The aim is for veterans to obtain absolutely the most quantity of equal credit score and to make sure that this system supplies each potential benefit to the scholar.”

He additionally traveled as a consultant of the college at conferences and recruiting occasions, and used his former place to entry navy bases within the South and recruit for Samford, courtroom paperwork mentioned.

Although Bailey billed himself as a retired lieutenant colonel, his Air Power headshot on Samford’s web site reveals gold oak leaves pinned to his shoulders — denoting main — relatively than the silver leaves of the next-highest rank.

The college honored Bailey with an annual award for distinguished alumni in nursing in 2017, and named him as one in every of two Alumni of the Yr in 2020.

“Bailey has continued to serve his nation by means of his involvement with the Disabled American Veterans Affiliation and Disabled American Veterans Choctaw County, Alabama, Chapter,” the college mentioned in 2020. “Bailey is at the moment a contributing member of the Ida Moffett Faculty of Nursing Advisory Board.”

A Samford spokesperson didn’t present remark by press time Monday.

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Taking a more in-depth look

The Pentagon caught its mistake — the company that handles navy payroll was by no means informed that Bailey was eliminated — in March 2017. The circulation of checks stopped.

In whole, the Air Power paid Bailey $818,918.36 within the seven years between his court-martial conviction, which barred him from receiving pay or advantages, and the day the Protection Division struck him from its ledger.

A federal investigation constructed over the following three years. In April 2020, FBI agent Lawrence Spurlin sought a search warrant to dig up the contents of Bailey’s Apple e-mail deal with from the corporate’s headquarters in Silicon Valley.

“Bailey has claimed to be disabled since March 14, 2012,” Spurlin wrote within the search warrant request, which was unsealed Mach 16. “He seems to be actively engaged in farming exercise.”

The Justice Division filed its indictment of Bailey eight months later in December 2020.

Spurlin famous in 2020 that he couldn’t discover official documentation that Brandon and Todd Bailey are legally married, similar to a wedding certificates or a joint tax submitting, although courtroom paperwork refers to Todd as Brandon’s husband. The 2 dwell collectively in Maine and have moved across the nation collectively, public courtroom paperwork and Fb posts present.

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Todd wrote to federal attorneys in September 2021 to protest the potential seizure of his dwelling, three financial institution accounts and securities as a part of the sentencing. “I used to be not conscious of any unlawful conduct or actions that Brandon could or could not have been concerned in,” he mentioned.

On Dec. 15, Todd’s mother and father referred to as the police division in Holden, Maine, to warn that Brandon was threatening to kill himself in entrance of Todd at dwelling, based on a replica of an FBI report on the scenario that was included in courtroom paperwork.

An officer visited the home and detained Brandon, who was sitting in a truck with the engine operating. Two different cops joined shortly after.

“Officers believed that Brandon and Todd had been having a relationship dispute, which had led to a verbal altercation,” the FBI report mentioned. “Brandon didn’t categorical any suicidal ideations in Officer Beal’s presence, nor had been there any seen indications of a bodily altercation.”

An unnamed minor was on the home as nicely, the report added.

The 2 males each claimed the opposite was experiencing psychological well being points. Todd informed legislation enforcement they had been arguing over Brandon’s threats of an affair, not that Brandon had advised committing suicide.

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Regulation enforcement discovered three handguns within the pair’s bed room, a shotgun within the basement and 9mm ammunition. Bailey’s federal probation banned him from having firearms, which police mentioned each males appeared to acknowledge. Todd claimed the weapons had been his and informed cops he had moved as many as 39 others to a good friend’s home.

Police seized the firearms, and Brandon ended up in an Alabama jail for violating the phrases of his pretrial launch.

“There are not any circumstances that can moderately guarantee the protection of the neighborhood,” a Jan. 26 courtroom order mentioned.

DOJ has requested the courtroom to additional deal with the incident on the upcoming listening to.

“Bailey’s alleged misconduct whereas awaiting sentencing was brazen, indicative of a scarcity of acceptance of duty and worthy of punishment,” prosecutors mentioned.