The letters, sent last month by the Army’s Casualty and Mortuary Affairs Operation Center, gave families a list of private organizations that assist families of veterans killed in service.

But the letter printing, handled by a contractor, never included the specific names of those whose sons and daughters had perished in Afghanistan and Iraq. Instead, the placeholder greeting “Dear Jon Doe” remained on all letters — more than 7,000 in total.

The Army’s Chief of Staff is sending a personal letter of apology to each of the families, but he’s admitted “there are no words to adequately apologize for this mistake or for the hurt it may have caused.”

Anna Susan Kosak, bookkeeper for Quail Ridge Books & Music in Raleigh, NC, was arrested for embezzling $348,975 from the independent bookstore.

As the only person who handled the business’s books, Kosak was able to write and cash checks she’d written to herself without anyone checking her work.

General manager Sarah Goddin said the missing funds were undetected because Kosak had kept the check amounts small, and had been stealing for a long period of time. When asked why Kosak would steal, Goddin mentioned that the bookkeeper had undergone gastric bypass surgery the previous year, which typically runs between $25,000 and $35,000.

Despite the suffering economy, Goddin insists the bookstore’s sales remained flat for the year. But thanks to the embezzlement charge, the owners will be more financially watchful than ever.

In what’s being touted as one of the biggest heists ever, the New York Daily News reportedly “stole” the Empire State Building after 90 minutes of paperwork. Reporters drew up fake documents, created a forged notary stamp and successfully took over ownership of the $2 billion landmark.

Performed as a demonstration that the city’s clerks aren’t spending enough time verifying information, the newspaper transferred ownership of the 102-story building from Empire State Land Associated to Nelots Properties, LCC (“nelots” is “stolen” spelled backwards).

As if that weren’t absurd enough, reporters also used bogus names on the new deed’s paperwork. Fay Wray, star of the original “King Kong” film, was listed as a witness, and the infamous robber Willie Sutton was listed as the notary.

A day after the fake deed was honored, the newspaper returned the building to its rightful owners.

The couple — whose names haven’t been released by authorities — were traveling from Germany back to their home in Sweden when border patrols stopped their van. An inspection revealed they had 4.2 liters of hard liquor, 27 liters of wine and a whopping 2,692 liters of beer.

Authorities subsequently searched the couple’s home and found even more alcohol — in total, they’d brought 24,000 cans of beer into the house. Along with the stash was a journal which included people’s names and addresses, along with different types and amounts of beer.

Police officials assumed the ledger was a master list for an on-going smuggling operation, but the couple claimed the alcohol was for personal use. They had upcoming birthdays, wedding parties and holiday celebrations to purchase alcohol for, and figured they’d get it from Germany, where the goods were taxed at a much lower rate.

After hearing the couple’s explanation, the court threw out the smuggling charges and ordered the alcohol supply be returned.

New York prosecutors recently nabbed John Hoeffner, an account at Tishman Construction, for embezzling more than $2.8 million from the company’s coffers. Usually, when fraud strikes a company from within its ranks, employees alter the books to cover their tracks and they’re discovered months down the road.

That part was true for this case — when prosecutors noticed hundreds of thousands of dollars were being spent on Hoeffner’s girlfriend, who resided in Cali, Colombia, it was a red flag.

Here’s where things get interesting: When they scoured the company’s records, prosecutors found Hoeffner had altered checks made out to the Mr. John company — a legitimate vendor at Tishman Construction. Hoeffner created fake invoices from the company, made checks written to “Mr. John,” and had his supervisor sign them.

Once he’d gotten the needed signature, Hoeffner wrote in his last name after “Mr. John” and cashed the checks for his personal use.

Investigations into your company’s records can be a drain on both time and processes. After this ordeal, it resulted in a massive windfall — but not for the state.

In the state’s largest verdict to an individual, Gilbert P. Hyatt, an engineer and inventor with more than 70 patents, was awarded $388 million. A Las Vegas jury found the Franchise Tax Board of California liable for fraud, abuse of process, breach of a confidential relationship, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Hyatt, a former resident of California, moved to Nevada in October 1991. Soon after, he began receiving millions of dollars in licensing fees from several of his inventions — the most famous of which was a microprocessor patent filed in 1990. After reviewing his income tax return for the year, the California tax board decided Hyatt was actually a resident in the state until April 1992, and assessed taxes and penalties totalling over $51 million.

The inventor filed suit against the tax board, accusing auditors of both fraud and negligence. Over the next decade, California’s collection efforts kicked into high gear. Shelia Cox, the main tax agent who pursued Hyatt, took several questionable approaches to getting Hyatt’s money.

Regular audits would have been enough of a hindrance, but California’s agents:

• Went through Hyatt’s trash and incoming mail
• Disclosed his Social Security number and credit card information to third-parties, who then pressured him to hand over the money
• Allegedly e-mailed and gossiped to co-workers about Hyatt’s personal life, and
• Relied heavily on misleading information from Hyatt’s ex-wife and disgruntled relatives.

When the case finally went to court, the defense’s job was simple, according to Hyatt’s main lawyer, Mark Hutchison. “The Franchise Tax Board wanted to focus on Gil Hyatt and make him out to be a villain,” said Hutchison. When it came to pointing out the FTB’s misconduct, they “went through and cataloged 20 or 30 outrageous acts and instances.”

Hyatt was first awarded $138.1 million in compensatory damages, including:

• $85 million for emotional distress
• $52 million for invasion of privacy, and
• $1.1 in attorney’s fees.

A week later, a jury awarded him another $250 million in punitive damages, stating the tax agency had acted with oppression, fraud and malice.

Cite: Hyatt v. Franchise Tax Board of California, 8th Judicial District Court, Clark County Courts, NV, 8/6/08.

Operating under the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, the Indian Health Service provides medical care to 1.9 million people, most of whom are Eskimos or in federally-recognized American Indian tribes. Thanks to a whistle-blower’s call to a government hotline a year ago, investigators have turned up some shady business practices at  Service.

After an audit of property records, about 5,000 items are reported stolen or missing, worth roughly $15.8 million.

Health Service officials say the findings aren’t justified — most of the items were only “temporarily misplaced,” and some discarded equipment was outdated.

Government Accountability Office (GAO) officials didn’t buy it. Included on their list of “egregious” errors:

• $700,000 of IT equipment was found damaged — mostly by bat dung — in a storage room
• a yard sale by several employees resulted in 17 computers being given away for free
• one stolen desktop (not bad) that contained a database with personal details of 849 miners (not good),
• fake purchasing documents used to deter auditors, and
• a missing set of “jaws of life” equipment.

The missing equipment is bad news for an already-shorthanded tribal community, claim GAO officials.

Your company goes the extra mile to make sure its business expense paperwork is bulletproof. Someone ought to clue in IRS.

For as thorough as IRS can be with most business’ tax records, you’d think it’d have a rock-solid reimbursement policy in place. But according to the latest report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), it looks like IRS and other agencies couldn’t possibly have a worse program.

The review of over a dozen departments between 2005 and 2006 found that 41% of $14 billion in credit card purchases — whether they were legitimate or questionable — didn’t follow proper reimbursement procedure. And if that weren’t bad enough, for purchases that were over $2,500 — all of which are supposed to require several levels of authentication — 48% were improperly received.

We know what you’re thinking: That’s a whole mess of improper reimbursements. But it wasn’t just for employees milking gas receipts or upgrading to four-star hotels. Here’s a list of our favorite purchases that we can’t believe didn’t raise an eye or two a little sooner:

1. Army employees couldn’t properly account for 16 computer servers that totaled over $1.5 million. The servers were supposed to be both photographed and inventoried in the Army’s books, but GAO inspectors only found a picture of one of the servers.
2. Over a six-year period, a Department of Agriculture employee wrote 180 convenience checks to her live-in boyfriend. A whistleblower notified the GAO, and the cardholder was sentenced to 21 months in prison and must pay back $642,000.
3. A U.S. Postal worker charged $1,100 on his p-card to subscribe to pornographic and Internet dating sites. We know everyone deserves to find someone, but someone should’ve caught on sooner — the Internet charges were the only purchases made on the card for over a year.
4. Another Agriculture employee circumvented agency policy to purchase a brand-new Toyota Land Cruiser. He split the $80,000 purchase up by writing three convenience checks. Adding insult to injury: The convenience checks added up to an additional $1,000 in fees.
5. One NASA cardholder purchased two 60GB iPods at the request of his supervisor. The $800 might seem like small change compared to other purchases, but you can’t top the supervisor’s logic: The iPods were purchased to store only “official NASA information.” When GAO officials confiscated the devices, they were chock-full of personal photos, songs, videos — and engraved with the supervisor’s name and NASA logo.
6. A State Department cardholder purchased $360 worth of women’s lingerie at “Seduccion Boutique.” When asked to justify her purchases, the cardholder claimed the “gear” was used for jungle training during a drug enforcement program in Ecuador. Makes sense to us — as long as it was camoflauge print.

What’s the most absurd purchase you’ve ever seen, whether on a company card or T&E reimbursement form? Let us know in the comments section below.

Joseph Lord had $3,000 worth of scrap metal stolen from his machine shop. For some unexplained reason, he expected them to return and kept his loaded shot gun close at hand.

His wait paid off because the thieves returned a few days later, in broad daylight.

He probably did more damage to their 2008 F-250 pickup then what they stole from him. He shot out their tires, windshield and radiator — making their escape vehicle unusable.

With no vehicle, the thieves resorted to fleeing the crime on foot, but officers quickly tracked them down.

Lord told police he accomplished what he wanted: to disable the get-away vehicle. The officers weren’t too keen on his use of a weapon, even though they understood Lord’s frustration. They just don’t want anybody getting hurt over property.

The owner of the truck is charged with breaking and entering and theft, while his accomplice still has charges pending.

Not only will Fox News have to pay its exterminator bill, but it’ll have to take out the checkbook to pay for the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that some critters caused.

Jane Clark, a 12-year veteran of Fox News, was bitten at work by bed bugs three times between October 2007 and April 2008. She claims that her complaints only brought ridicule and inaction from managers and co-workers.

According to Jane, the infestation was brought in from a co-worker who used her workstation on the weekends.

Jane was terrified of taking the bugs home to her child and now experiences regular nightmares. She also keeps a flashlight close by at night in case she needs to look for bugs at night.

She’s filed a lawsuit for an undisclosed amount and a workers’ comp claim because of the PTSD and inability to work. Fox News is currently paying her medical bills and lost wages.

Jane’s home was never infested and Fox News is bringing in independent bed bug experts to take a look at the problem.