BAH, OHA and DTSFraud Defense
The military has slapped you with an audit. They have reason to believe you’ve committed theft against the United States government. Now they’re coming after you hard, and you may not know how to fight back.
The government may have subpoenaed your bank records, lease documents, and your spouse’s employment records. They are asking for receipts and every financial document connected to your Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH), Overseas Housing Allowance (OHA), and travel claims submitted through the Defense Travel System (DTS).
Can you stop them from getting all of your personal financial records? And even if you did, what difference would it make? Haven’t they already branded you a thief? What else do they have against you?
If you’ve been accused of BAH fraud, OHA fraud or DTS fraud, your next move will substantially alter your future. Defending yourself could exonerate you of all wrongdoing. A conviction could bring confinement, a punitive discharge and a debt the government still intends to collect. The charged offense, available forum and any plea agreement matter.
Regardless of just how you got audited, you should avoid making any assumptions until you have experienced civilian defense counsel retained. Assuming what the government does or doesn’t have against you can leave you defending the wrong case. You can invoke your right to remain silent and request military defense counsel immediately; you do not have to wait to retain civilian counsel to exercise those rights.
Preserve the orders, finance emails, leases, receipts and vouchers as they exist. Keep any notice of the audit or debt, including its deadline. Get advice before trying to explain away a discrepancy or submitting a statement about the allegation.
How Tim Bilecki and Ben Gold Defend BAH, OHA and DTS Fraud Cases
You are not at the mercy of the government’s evidence. Tim Bilecki and Ben Gold examine the housing rules, orders, finance guidance and actual payments before accepting the government’s claim that an overpayment was theft. For a travel claim, we examine the Joint Travel Regulations and the authorization, trip and voucher that produced the payment.
BAH and OHA are military housing entitlements with reputations for being complicated and confusing. Service members make mistakes using these entitlements all the time.
Forensic examinations by a defense team can exonerate a service member outright or cast doubt on the prosecution’s case.
Was the so-called larceny just a result of a simple misunderstanding of the housing or travel rules, or did the finance office mess up your paperwork?
An overpayment is not automatically a crime. An Article 121 larceny allegation requires proof of wrongful obtaining, taking or withholding and an intent permanently to deprive or defraud. Article 107 false official statements and Article 124 fraudulent claims have their own requirements, including the required knowledge and intent. A mistake in a form is different from knowingly submitting a false claim. But knowingly continuing to collect money after entitlement ends can also become part of the government’s case.
An overpayment
A mistake in a form, or a finance error
A crime: each charge has its own proof
- Art. 121 larceny: wrongful obtaining, taking or withholding, and intent to permanently deprive or defraud
- Art. 107 false official statement: the required knowledge and intent
- Art. 124 fraudulent claim: the required knowledge and intent
We compare the orders, dependency documents, finance correspondence, claimed period and actual Leave and Earnings Statements. That comparison addresses two different questions: what the member was entitled to receive and what the member knew when the claim or payment occurred. If money is disputed, we calculate the amount for the period actually charged instead of accepting a total that mixes years or unrelated benefits. Repayment may matter to the resolution, but it does not by itself erase criminal liability.
QUESTION 1
What was the member entitled to receive?
QUESTION 2
What did the member know when the claim or payment occurred?
Trace the Housing Entitlement and Payments
For a housing allegation, we put the PCS orders and amendments beside the dependency paperwork, leases, rent payments and written finance guidance. We ask which location and dependency status the rules actually authorized, when the information changed, what the member reported and what finance did with it. A spouse’s trip overseas or a base-access entry may be relevant, but those facts still have to be compared with the allowance rules and the complete travel history.
Reconstruct the Trip and the DTS Claim
For a DTS allegation, we compare the travel authorization, amendments, voucher, receipts and approval records with the mission and actual itinerary. Who entered the disputed expense? What did the traveler certify? Who changed or approved it, and what were they told? A hotel receipt, airline change or cancellation, and the dates the duty was actually performed can tell a different story from the total on an auditor’s spreadsheet. We separate reimbursable expenses from allowances paid under the applicable rules before calling a payment improper.
Establish What You Told Finance and What You Knew
What you told finance matters. An email reporting a divorce, a question about a dependent’s location, or a request to correct pay can show what you disclosed and when. We compare those communications with any disputed form and speak with the people who processed it. Approval of a claim can help explain your understanding, but it does not excuse information you knew was false.
Use the Records to Defend the Case
Those findings determine what we fight. We can present a documented entitlement or intent defense while an investigation is still underway, challenge the government’s witnesses and loss calculations at trial, and contest a GOMOR or proposed separation. When the evidence calls for negotiations, we address the charges, sentence, retirement and remaining debt separately. A plea agreement that limits confinement may still leave a career or retirement issue unresolved.
Tim Bilecki received a B.S. in Finance from the Boston College Carroll School of Management and maintains a track record as a defense attorney for BAH fraud, OHA fraud, and DTS fraud.
What Do BAH Fraud and OHA Fraud Look Like, and How Does the Government Spot It?
The military will perform both random and targeted audits on service members. You may have been flagged because of a discrepancy between your Leave and Earnings Statements, orders and other military or civilian financial documents.
BAH fraud and OHA fraud take many forms. Below are just a few of the cases we’ve seen:
A service member uses a false location for his or her dependents in order to obtain a higher BAH rate than allowed.
The rental component of OHA generally reimburses actual rent up to the applicable ceiling; other components can cover utilities and moving expenses. A service member might fabricate a false rental agreement and submit the fictitious amount for reimbursement.
A service member claims he’s married when he’s not, or fails to inform finance that he’s divorced. This allows him to receive more per month from BAH than his actual dependency status and circumstances authorize.
Defense Travel System (DTS) Fraud
It’s not just BAH and OHA fraud that is being investigated and prosecuted. Audits examine claimed expenses, entitlement to travel allowances and whether the service member actually traveled on the claimed TDY or TAD. The military scrutinizes travel and reimbursement claims submitted through DTS.
If you are a frequent TAD/TDY traveler and utilize the DTS system regularly, you could be the target of a DTS audit or investigation.
A service member creates travel authorizations for unauthorized missions, extends travel without justification, or claims higher reimbursements and expenses that weren’t incurred.
You’re worried that a conviction could end your military career and destroy your credibility. If you believe these things are worth fighting for, then you have time to make ONE call to the defense attorneys at Bilecki Law Group.
Typical Examples
Law enforcement looks for similar or familiar BAH, OHA and DTS fraud scenarios. The dollar figures below are hypothetical examples, not published allowance or per diem rates. Actual entitlement depends on the orders, dependency status, location, applicable dates and rules.
HYPOTHETICAL EXAMPLES · NOT PUBLISHED RATES
False dependent location
$1,000 more a month × 12 months
$12,000
False overseas lease
($2,500 claimed − $400 actual) × 12 months
$25,200
Dependency status after divorce
$500 more a month × 12 months
$6,000
False Dependent Location
A service member uses a false location for his or her dependents in order to obtain a higher BAH rate than allowed. For example, an O-3 serving an unaccompanied tour in Korea has dependents living near Fort Bragg, North Carolina, but reports that they live in Honolulu to collect a higher allowance. Assume the member’s orders and applicable housing rules authorize BAH based on the dependents’ actual location. If the false location produces $1,000 more than the authorized amount each month, twelve full months would produce $12,000 in unauthorized payments.
False Overseas Lease
A service member at Camp Humphreys, Korea, with a wife in the Philippines, uses a fraudulent lease or rental agreement to receive a higher OHA payment. Assume the orders and applicable rules authorize a rental allowance for the spouse’s location and the claimed rent is within the applicable ceiling. A service member might fabricate a false rental agreement and submit the fictitious amount for reimbursement. If the spouse was actually paying $400 a month living in the barangay, but the service member used a fraudulent lease saying his spouse was paying $2,500 a month living in Makati, the claimed difference would be $2,100 a month. After one year, that would equal $25,200 in unauthorized payments.
Dependency Status After Divorce
A service member claims he is married when he is not, or fails to inform Finance that he has been divorced. For example, assume an E-6 stationed at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, divorces and has no other qualifying dependent. If he knowingly continues to claim that he is married and receives $500 more per month than he is entitled to receive, the difference would produce $6,000 in unauthorized payments over twelve full months. Divorce alone does not answer every entitlement question; the actual dependency and support circumstances still have to be examined.
False TDY Location
A service member is stationed at Fort Shafter, Hawaii and travels TDY to Camp Zama, Japan and Torii Station, Okinawa. On a 10-day trip to Camp Zama, the traveler knowingly lists his destination in DTS as “Tokyo City” to claim a higher allowance, then files his voucher upon returning. If the false location results in a larger payment than the applicable rules authorize, that difference is the alleged overpayment. The calculation must use the actual travel dates, itinerary, lodging and meal entitlements rather than multiplying two published daily totals by ten.
A Trip With No Official Mission
A service member submits an authorization in DTS for travel to Bangkok, Thailand when no mission there exists. His friend is the approving authority for DTS and the two make a deal to approve the trip in exchange for receiving 50% of the money from the travel claim. The trip is approved in DTS, orders are issued, and the service member travels to Bangkok and enjoys himself on Soi Cowboy in Sukhumvit for a week. After returning, he files a DTS claim for reimbursement for his week in Thailand, his buddy approves the voucher, and the payment is split between the two of them. Both service members may face conspiracy and fraud charges.
BAH, OHA and DTS Fraud Cases We Have Defended
Bilecki Law Group has a record of winning BAH, OHA and DTS fraud cases. Here are examples of acquittals on particular charges, negotiated outcomes and a case resolved without prosecution.
Camp Henry: One Plea, Forty-Five Days and an Approved Retirement
An Army Sergeant First Class approaching retirement faced five specifications arising from approximately $76,000 in alleged BAH fraud. The government had a California lease, official forms it claimed were false, an altered divorce decree and a recording that was going to be difficult to explain away. Tim Bilecki did not sell him a fantasy about that evidence. He made the Army prove every charge and every dollar, then negotiated to protect the retirement.
The CID file included calculations dating to 2008 that combined benefits into a gross total approaching $450,000. The actual larceny specification covered a much shorter period. Tim compared the charged dates with the Leave and Earnings Statements: six monthly payments of $3,945 in 2023 and twelve of $4,344 in 2024, totaling $75,798. The stipulation excluded retroactive payments outside the charge and included the final December 2024 installment paid around the beginning of January 2025.
CID FILE · CALCULATIONS DATING TO 2008
≈ $450,000
Combined benefits into a gross total
THE CHARGED PERIOD, FROM THE LES
6 × $3,945 (2023) + 12 × $4,344 (2024)
$75,798
The client pleaded guilty to one larceny specification and not guilty to the other four. The agreement required the government to move before findings to dismiss those four without prejudice, with the dismissals to become with prejudice after final judgment if the guilty finding survived. Confinement was capped at 45 days, and the agreement prohibited a punitive discharge, fine, forfeitures and any other punishment except reduction to E-6. Separate commitments from the Convening Authority protected the retirement process.
Tim personally appeared at Camp Henry for sentencing. The judge imposed all 45 days and reduction to E-6. The Army approved the retirement. DFAS could still recoup the housing debt. This was a negotiated conviction with confinement and reduction, not an acquittal or a cancellation of the debt.
Torii Station: Housing Investigation Resolved With a GOMOR and Retirement
An Army Colonel in Japan was investigated over Washington State BAH, his spouse’s travel and overseas housing issues. The government treated base-access records, family travel and a designated housing location as pieces of a fraud case. Tim Bilecki worked through the PCS orders, finance guidance, dependent travel, pay history and voucher records instead of accepting that label.
In this particular case, written finance guidance confirmed that pay had been processed from the PCS orders and that a lease was not required. Base-access entries showed access to a base; they did not by themselves establish legal residence for the allowance. The documents also showed that changing the designated BAH location required approval beyond local finance. Those were issues to establish from the actual orders and guidance, not assumptions to make in every housing case.
The defense submitted a 74-page GOMOR rebuttal with eight enclosures addressing the allowance, travel and finance history. No charges were preferred and there was no court-martial. The case resolved administratively with a GOMOR, and the Colonel was allowed to retire.
Camp Humphreys: Most Housing Charges Defeated, Partial FSA Conviction
Bilecki’s client was charged with nearly $30,000 in fraud for allegedly obtaining BAH, OHA and Family Separation Allowance (FSA) by claiming that her husband resided in Brooklyn, NY. The government claimed that her husband, a native of Trinidad, did not live where claimed and that his whereabouts were unknown. Although the case initially seemed almost impossible to win, Bilecki demanded a jury trial and tenaciously fought the charges.
Through pretrial motions, Bilecki excluded significant portions of CID’s investigation. After a trial lasting almost a week, the client was found not guilty of the majority of charges and convicted only on a portion of the FSA charge. She received 120 days of confinement. This was an acquittal on particular charges, with a remaining conviction and sentence.
Beat the evidence and the odds. Hire Bilecki Law Group to fight BAH fraud, OHA fraud and DTS fraud charges.
Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Happens During a Government Forensic Audit?
A government audit does not mean every request gives agents unrestricted access to every financial record. The authority, scope and deadline for a particular request matter. Have counsel review the request and the process the government is using before you produce records, consent to a search or answer questions about an allegation. Preserve the records; do not hide, alter or destroy them.
The government may request:
- Personal bank account information (statements and transactions)
- Marriage licenses and divorce filings
- School enrollment records
- Birth certificates of children
- Rental and lease agreements
Do not ignore a lawful deadline. Get advice promptly about what must be produced and how to respond. If you’re having trouble locating these documents or you have no idea where to start, Bilecki Law Group can help defend your interests.
How Can a Housing Allowance Overpayment Become a Criminal Case?
Some cases involve deliberate efforts to claim money the member knows is not authorized. A service member can obtain thousands more per year by providing a false address or falsely claiming a spouse or dependent. Those allegations still have to be proved; a payment discrepancy alone does not establish them.
The most painful cases involve service members who have been defrauding the government for years before being found out. Many of these men and women owe tens of thousands of dollars to the U.S. government. This money is often long gone by the time Uncle Sam comes calling for it.
Under these circumstances, the government can hit these service members hard, not only demanding the money back, but initiating a general court-martial with threats of prison time and a punitive discharge or, for an officer, dismissal from the military.
Contact Us
Tim Bilecki has an undergraduate degree in finance from Boston College, an MBA from Babson College’s F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business, and is a graduate of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses. Tim Bilecki and Ben Gold fly anywhere in the world to defend service members. If you are currently accused of or charged with larceny, BAH fraud, OHA fraud, DTS fraud, or another military financial crime, contact us to discuss your options, not just a guilty plea.