Members of Congress are beginning to hear about an outrageous scheme that may have cost taxpayers as much as $100 million. Prison terms, perhaps hundreds of them, would be a good way to deter similar scandals in the future.

Investigators say the scheme involved people signed up as “recruiting assistants” to help the National Guard from 2005-2012. Assistants could be paid as much as $7,500 for each recruit they claimed to have persuaded to enlist.

But many times, assistants took credit for people who planned to enlist anyway. Some high school guidance counselors and principals, who knew in advance of students’ plans, reaped tens of thousands of dollars in bonuses.

More than 1,200 people have been implicated in what amounts to a gigantic fraud scheme, members of Congress have been told.

This one should not be exposed, then forgotten. If it requires 1,200 criminal prosecutions to deter similar scandals in the future, so be it.