Struggling artist in his garage in queens. The fraud might still be going on if were not for an art historian named jack flam, who was the first person to uncover the scheme and blow the whistle to the government. When you found out that all these paintings were forged by one guy working in queens, what did you think . I was amazed. I was truly amazed. The guy really knew what he was doing. Sharyn alfonsi scientists from the u. S. And mexico recently surveyed the gulf to count the last vaquitas still in existence. Its not easy, because their numbers are dwindling and the animals are notoriously shy and elusive. Thats one reason why most people have never heard of a vaquita okay, theyre right here ten o clock alfonsi and fewer have seen one. We didnt expect to see any, either. Whats your best guess . How many vaquita are left . I think theres certainly fewer than 100. Im steve kroft. Im lesley stahl. Im anderson cooper. Im bill whitaker. Im sharyn alfonsi. Im scott pelley. 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David martin it is the largest criminal investigation in the history of the United States army an aftershock caused by the wars in iraq and afghanistan. Running short of soldiers, the Army National guard came up with a scheme called the recruiting Assistance Program which paid a 2,000 bonus to members of the guard who brought in a new recruit. A total of 105,000 soldiers got those bonuses, but some of them scammed the system by claiming to bring in recruits they had never met. 80 soldiers have pled guilty or been convicted, and another 60 remain under indictment. By now, most of the big fish have been caught, including some who raked in more than 100,000 in fraudulent bonuses. But as the investigation grinds on into its fourth year, a backlash has set in. Some soldiers claim they did nothing illegal and are being made scapegoats for a recruiting program the army admits was badly mismanaged from the start. Master Sergeant Jerry wilson is one of the 105,000 soldiers who fell under investigation. Last year, he walked into adams county courthouse in colorado charged with felony theft for the bonuses he received from the recruiting Assistance Program. How many potential soldiers did you end up recruiting . Jerry wilson 22. Martin and how much did you make for those 22 soldiers . Wilson 43,000. Martin 43,000. Wilson yes. Martin a combat veteran and recipient of the bronze star, wilson had been in the army for 21 years, most of it as a green beret. Judge we will call 14cr327 people v wilson. Martin now he was facing four to 12 years in prison after the armys criminal Investigation Division concluded he was not entitled to any of the bonus money he received for soldiers who joined the colorado National Guard. Weve talked to your lawyer and she said it looked like a strong case. When she first saw it, she was worried. Wilson okay. Martin were you . Wilson no, because i thought i was innocent. I mean, why would i go to court and put myself through everything i put myself through if i didnt think i was innocent . Martin prosecutor ted darcy told the court wilson came up with dates of birth and Social Security numbers of young men already on track to join the guard and entered the information into a website without their permission, then collected a 2,000 bonus. Ted darcy this was a program that was so easy to abuse. Gary cheek we had a program with the best of intentions, but unfortunately it was poorly designed. We left ourselves vulnerable to fraud. Martin according to lt. Gen. Gary cheek, director of the army staff, the National Guard created the program in 2005. Between iraq and afghanistan, the guard had more troops deployed than at any time since world war ii, and fewer recruits coming in. Cheek when you zero in on the time that this program was initiated in 2005, the army was under a lot of stress. Were fighting in two wars. The National Guard was 20,000 soldiers under strength and attempting to grow. Martin so, whats the Practical Impact of having the National Guard be short 20,000 soldiers . Cheek they will end up having a unit thats under strength to go to combat. Martin the recruiting Assistance Program was considered, in the words of this National Guard publication, one of the most successful recruiting and retention programs launched in recent history. So successful, it was adopted by the rest of the army. Cheek the only metric we were tracking was success. How many soldiers are we recruiting. This is a big mistake in running a program like this. Martin so the numbers were going up . Cheek the numbers were going up. Martin how long did it take the guard to get back to the strength it was supposed to be at . Cheek so it took about three years for them to meet their recruiting objectives. Martin so, if the problems pretty much solved by 2008, why does this Bonus Program keep running until 2012 . Cheek i think thats a great question. Martin and the answer is . Cheek and the answer is they probably shouldve reviewed it and considered terminating it. Martin by the end of 2010, Army Investigators had uncovered 19 criminal cases, including a ring of seven soldiers in texas led by specialist xavier aves who admitted he and his Co Conspirators unlawfully obtained a total of at least 244,000 in fraudulent recruiting referral bonus payments. The army was beginning to suspect the program had systematic failures. But that didnt stop the National Guard from exhorting soldiers like jim root to take part. Jim root when i enlisted, they were promoting this like no tomorrow, wanting everybody to participate in this program. And there was never once a conversation about, this program is under investigation for fraud. You should stay away from this program. Martin four years later, root was indicted for unlawfully, feloniously and knowingly claiming recruiting bonuses he did not deserve. He insisted he was innocent. Did they offer you any plea deal . Root initially, they offered me to drop the charges if i paid back 18,000. I know as it got closer, i think they wanted 6,000 or 9,000 and they would drop charges. Martin but that must have been a tempting deal. You can get this out of your way for just paying 5,000, 6,000. Which is a heck of a lot less than youre going to end up paying in legal fees. Root there was a lot of sleepless nights. I actually had thought about, because i seen the heartache that my family. Excuse me. The heartache. My family faced through this process was very tempting, at times, to throw in the towel and say, enough is enough. But inside of me, the integrity that i had i could not do that. Martin in 2012, the army cancelled the recruiting Assistance Program and set up a special unit of 60 full time agents to investigate every one of those 105,000 soldiers who received bonuses. Its name task force raptor. Its motto do what has to be done. So far, the army has spent nearly 28 million to uncover 10 million of alleged fraud. Over 100,000 soldiers have been cleared with more than 4,000 still under investigation. Flora darpino once we discovered or believed that soldiers had taken advantage of the program to commit criminal misconduct, we were going to fully investigate it. Martin lt. General flora darpino is the armys top lawyer. Darpino when it comes to crime, it isnt really about the cost of what it takes to investigate. Its making sure that people are held accountable for criminal misconduct. And thats why we investigate. Martin the Army National guard spends seven years exhorting its soldiers to serve as parttime recruiters. And then it turns around and puts them all under investigation. Thats an about face. Darpino if we believe theres criminal misconduct, we owe the American People a full investigation to determine if in fact people have defrauded the government. Claire mccaskill this is the largest criminal investigation ever undertaken by the army in connection with this recruiting program. Martin senator Claire Mccaskill first drew attention to the fraud at a congressional hearing two years ago. What was your reaction when you saw how far out of control it had spun . Mccaskill it was mind boggling to me that this amount of money would be going out the door without anybody doing the basics of control of the program. Martin last year, the army issued this reprimand to now retired Lieutenant General clyde vaughn, who as director of the Army National guard championed the recruiting Assistance Program. Your lack of oversight, it said, contributed to conditions vulnerable to pervasive fraud, waste and abuse. Vaughn, who declined to be interviewed on camera, strongly disputes that. But he is retired now and a reprimand has no affect on his benefits. An internal army audit estimated the total fraud could be as high as tens of millions of dollars. Investigations and audits have produced hundreds of pages of documents which the army released to 60 minutes. Im just going to quote you from one of them found a failure to adequately plan, award, manage and oversee the contracts. Cheek i agree with that completely. Martin did anybody put in measures to prevent fraud . Cheek no, that was the. That was the key problem. Martin it seems so simple. All you do is ask the soldier who was recruited, who recruited you . Cheek i think there were a lot of ways we could have done this. Martin some recruiting assistants would simply go to a Shopping Center or a job fair wearing a tshirt like this ask me about the National Guard. All they had to do was talk up the benefits of joining the guard, and if a young man or woman showed any interest refer them to a fulltime recruiter, who would do the hard work of getting them to sign on the dotted line. Root i could have a two minute conversation with you, dave, and ask you, would you be interested in finding out more information about the National Guard . Yes. Here, fill out this piece of paper for me. You fill out this piece of paper. I turn that paper over to a recruiter. Its the recruiters job to close that contract. Martin doesnt that piece of paper have to include his Social Security number. Root name, Social Security, address, phone number. Martin and do you have to tell him that you might use this to claim a. Root yes. Martin a bonus . Root yes. Martin and did you . Root yes. Martin after a threeday trial, the jury took just 40 minutes to reach a verdict. And the verdict was . Root not guilty. Martin and your reaction . Root weeping. Felt like collapsing. We will begin this mornings proceedings with opening statements. Martin as for jerry wilson, the green beret Master Sergeant facing up to 12 years in prison, his trial lasted four days. The prosecution presented witnesses who didnt remember giving wilson permission to use their Social Security number. Defense attorney Julia Stancil chipped away at their testimony, questioning their recollection of events that took place more than four years earlier. But her main argument was that soldiers like wilson were taking the fall for a badly run program. Julia stancil soldiers as scapegoats for an inherently flawed gigantic, mismanaged Government Program worth 500 million. Martin even the prosecution had a hard time arguing wilson had deliberately committed a crime. Darcy the system was easy to take advantage of. And frankly, i think it was out of character from everything weve heard about sergeant wilson. But he did take advantage of it. Martin it took the jury 90 minutes to reach a unanimous verdict. We the jury find the defendant jerry Jerome Wilson not guilty of count number one, theft. Martin wilson walked out of court, thinking it was all behind him. He would be able to get back to his Army Specialty as a medic by returning to the physicians assistant school he had to quit when he was indicted. Wilson i promise you i will never see the inside of a courtroom again. Martin one of his commanders sent out this email stating Master Sergeant wilson is authorized to reenroll and attend the physicians assistant course. Please do all that you can to assist the soldier in this process. So you think its a done deal . Wilson yeah. Martin was it . Wilson no. Martin instead, the commanding general of the colorado guard placed a reprimand in wilsons file, killing his chances for promotion. It cited compelling and substantive evidence that you defrauded the government. Wilson responded by accepting some responsibility saying if i could go back and do it all again i would keep a very specific record of everyone i talked to. But he disputed he had acted through nefarious means. A jury had acquitted wilson of committing a crime but that, as lt gen. Gary cheek explained, is not always good enough for the army. Cheek we have our army values that were part of. So if you are found not guilty in a court of law, that really simply means that you are not guilty of a crime. But you have done something unethical within the military for which you could receive an administrative action. Martin the same thing happened to jim root after he was acquitted. Root even though i was found not guilty, they felt in their eyes i was still guilty under their military rules and regulations, and that i would be removed from military service. Martin root was able to avoid being kicked out by taking a medical discharge instead, but that doesnt make him any less bitter. Root the army has this motto, no soldier left behind. They didnt leave me behind. They threw me off the bus. And weve got big steak news. Now, every sirloin here is center cut the most tender sirloin of all want our new sirloin . 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