European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 26, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Daily is Gus Schuettler air Force special agents Francisco Rodriguez Rivera left and Javier Escobar or. Of Torrejon a Spain. Sleuthing mw"1cic a Torrejon by Rosemary Sawyer staff writer Magine James Bond travelling with toy per diem dollars instead of an unlimited expense account and you la picture a Sleuth not unlike two air Force special agents at Torrejon a Spain. A lot of people see Osi As a 007 Type of thing said Javier Escobar or. We Don t go around with fancy cars and the Money and the travels like it s portrayed. It s not As dramatized. But we do a lot of that Type of work. It s like an unknown an exciting  True office of special investigations agents Escobar and Francisco Rodriguez Rivera Don t enjoy the amenities of Ian Fleming s fictional Playboy but they do enjoy the distinction of being the Best air Force agents in the Southern Mediterranean Region for 1987. According to maj. Wynn c. Phillips det 6840 commander Escobar helped the detachment to Complete 336 More investigations in 1987 than in 1986. Rodriguez Rivera nearly tripled the number of fraud cases uncovered last year Phillips said. As a fraud investigation specialist Rodriguez Rivera normally Only investigates criminal cases like those prime time television is made of when he serves As duty agent. Last year he probed civilian housing allowance fraud and found five employees had illegally received almost $200,000 from the government. Living quarters allowance regulations permit persons to buy a House by applying their maximum allowable housing allowance toward 10 percent of the Price of the House each year for up to 10 years. A Legal loophole allows employees to buy the House and then move to a rental Home or apartment just before the 10 years elapse. However the rules prohibit the worker from buying a second House at government expense. Rodriguez Rivera discovered several employees were doing just that by using falsified documents that said they were renting the second House. The agent who joined the civilian Osi ranks in 1986 pored Over contracts and documents in downtown Madrid for hundreds of hours looking for paper slips that might prove his hunches. One civilian employee held a contract that stated he had sold a House to his Mother in Law from whom he was then renting. Rodriguez Rivera wondered whether he d be Able to disprove the employee s suspicious claim. One Day he discovered the worker s 5-cent mistake. Rodriguez Rivera traced his Standard contract form which can be purchased from any stationer for about a tuesday july 26, 1988 Nickel Back to its Printer. He Learned that the company did t begin printing the form until three or four years after its signing Date. End of investigation. End of one civilian employee s government service career. Beginning of next Case. Last year the retired air Force member also disclosed 14 cases in which individuals tacked. Mortgage costs to the Price of the houses being paid for by the government. While this was not an act of fraud per be some employees illegally reaped up to $7,000 a year to which they were not entitled As the government will not foot financing costs. While scenes of Rodriguez Rivera tucked away in the City archives thumbing through yellowing documents May not be the stuff Kojak is made of his behind the scenes work saved the air Force almost $500,000 last year. Escobar Coic of the office deals with criminal cases Many times like those on the tube with one minor difference we Don t solve any crime within an  criminal work is different from fraud investigation because you see everything there Escobar explained. The Only thing you Don t see is there could be a piece of Glass or a hair that you might miss. That could be a crucial Point in actually solving the Case or leading to a  Escobar said his most challenging Case last year involved two airmen in the Barracks. We got a report of somebody running through the Barracks with a lot of blood on him waving a broken knife in people s faces Escobar recounted. The Barracks residents went to the room from which the hysterical Guy had come and saw another individual in there who was pretty beat up and  complicating what first appeared a straightforward stabbing were allegations from both parties and a related homosexual act. By the Mere fact that the action was homosexual the Way the air Force looks at it and the elements of proof it was very complicated Escobar said. The weapon a pair of scissors that broke off in the victim s Skull proved to be the key in trying the Case. A medical expert testified to How much Force it would take and from which direction the blows had to be struck to break scissors. One airman was sentenced to seven years in prison the other was discharged. Escobar said he and his fellow agents handled a year full of things like that with rewards much like the to detective s. You catch the culprit and you get that feeling of Success i guess. You Start out with nothing and you work it into hey i found this Guy it takes initiative imagination trickery everything that you can use to find that person he said sometimes the Reward never comes. Investigators can t always find the key piece of evidence such As the predated contract form that clinches the Case. Your gut feeling tells you that this person was involved or did the actual act whatever incident you re investigating but you can t prove it Escobar said. Either for some reason this person protected himself so Well covered his track that you just can t uncover  then there Are cases that offer Reward followed by frustration such As cases involving family members and Spanish employees that never come to trial. . Officials have no jurisdiction Over spaniards. They can Only give investigation results to Spanish authorities who then decide whether to prosecute. Likewise during peacetime family members who commit crimes Are immune from military court action. Spanish authorities can prosecute but they generally Don t unless the crime was severe and affected a Spanish citizen. A . District attorney can agree to prosecute dependents but most go untried. Phillips cited one Case in which a family member walked away after admitting to stealing and gambling away $20,000. Air Force officials can Only bar the family member from All base facilities except the Hospital Phillips said. Rodriguez Rivera said he s used to this jurisdictional escape route that never seems to trip up the to heroes. You be got a Job to do and you cannot be discouraged by the fact that sometimes the result that you get is not exactly what you want. You cannot be the investigator and the judge. I Hope for the Best and if it does t happen Well so be it. Well try for the next  the stars and stripes Page 13