The Fat Leonard scandal is a corruption scandal and ongoing investigation within the United States Navy involving ship support contractor Glenn Defense Marine Asia (GDMA), a subsidiary of the Glenn Marine Group. The Washington Post called the scandal "perhaps the worst national-security breach of its kind to hit the Navy since the end of the Cold War." At the heart of the scandal was Glenn Defense Marine Asia, a firm run by playboy Leonard Glenn Francis, a Malaysian national of Portuguese and Sri Lankan extraction. Six foot three inches tall, and weighing 350 pounds despite a stomach stapling, he was known as "Fat Leonard." Francis disbursed hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, travel expenses, luxury items, and prostitutes among a large number of U.S. uniformed officers of the United States Seventh Fleet. They in turn gave him classified material about the movements of U.S. ships and submarines, confidential contracting information, and information about active law enforcement investigations into Glenn Defense Marine Asia. Francis then "exploited the intelligence for illicit profit, brazenly ordering his moles to redirect aircraft carriers to ports he controlled in Southeast Asia so he could more easily bilk the Navy for fuel, tugboats, barges, food, water and sewage removal."
U.S. federal prosecutors filed criminal charges against 28 people in connection with the Fat Leonard scandal. Of those, 18 pleaded guilty: Francis himself, four of his top aides, and 14 Navy officials (specifically, ten commissioned officers, one petty officer first class, one former NCIS special agent, and two civilian Navy contracting officials). Ten others are awaiting trial in U.S. district court in San Diego. Separately, five Navy officers were charged with crimes under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and have been subject to court-martial proceedings. An additional civilian pleaded guilty to a scandal-related crime in Singapore court.
Video Fat Leonard scandal
Initiation and conduct of investigation
In 2006, Dave Schauss, a NCIS investigator, became suspicious of GDMA contracts, but Francis was alerted by an informant, Paul Simpkins, to the scrutiny. Simpkins, a decorated veteran of the U.S. Air Force employed as a civilian contractor for the Navy in Singapore, managed to quash any inquiry and had Schauss's position eliminated. Subsequent to the 9/11/01 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the Navy's Economic Crimes unit had been reduced from a staff of 140 to only nine persons. In 2010, Navy officials became suspicious that some of the bills submitted by GDMA from Thailand were padded. After a three-year secret investigation and having planted false information that their inquiries had been closed, putting him off his guard, federal agents lured Francis to the United States in September 2013, arresting him at a San Diego hotel in a sting operation. He pleaded guilty in January 2015 and is awaiting sentencing. Leonard admitted to using his U.S. Navy contacts, including ship captains, to obtain classified information and to defraud the Navy of tens of millions of dollars by steering ships to specific ports in the Pacific and falsifying service charges. In his plea, Francis identified seven Navy officials who accepted bribes. He faces a maximum prison sentence of 25 years and agreed to forfeit $35 million in personal assets, an amount he admits to overcharging the Navy.
In 1989, when he was 21, Leonard had been sentenced to three years in jail in Malaysia for firearms possession.
Maps Fat Leonard scandal
Scope of inquiry and prosecutions
Since 2013, 31 people have been criminally charged in connection with the Fat Leonard bribery and corruption scandal. According to investigators, by November 2017, more than 440 people -- including 60 admirals -- have come under scrutiny under the inquiry. The Navy will hold a military trial for a still-serving commander, David A. Morales, the first not left to civilian prosecution. He was charged with accepting travel, gifts and cash, in return for persuading other military officials to accept bribes and join the conspiracy. As of February 2018, 19 people have pleaded guilty; 13 others have been charged (including eight Navy officers who were indicted in March 2017); four admirals were disciplined by the military; two others are known to be under investigation; and more than 150 other unidentified people have been scrutinized.
A March 2017 indictment also references a conspiracy member, a retired lieutenant commander in the Royal Australian Navy, who had been a liaison officer with USS Blue Ridge, and identified only as "A.G." A second unidentified Australian of similar rank was also reported to be under investigation.
Among the nineteen people who have pleaded guilty to federal crimes, one was Francis himself, two others were his top deputies; and fifteen others were Navy personnel. The highest-ranking was Rear Admiral Robert Gilbeau, who was convicted in June 2016 after pleading guilty to making false statements to investigators about his contacts with Francis, becoming the first Navy admiral in modern American history to be convicted of a felony while on active duty. On May 17, 2017, U.S. District Judge Janis Lynn Sammartino sentenced Gilbeau to 18 months in prison, although he will be allowed to continue collecting his nearly $10,000 monthly pension.
National University of Singapore, corporate governance expert Mak Yuen Teen, noted that procurement in the defense industry is particularly vulnerable to bribery and corruption. "It is usually not that transparent," with infrequent bidding for large contracts. Blowing the whistle on superior officers might also be discouraged, he indicated. "Those at the top probably thought they could get away with it as their underlings were unlikely to squeal on them."
According to its spokesman Captain Amy Derrick, the U.S. Navy canceled all contracts with GDMA as the result of a 2013 audit.
In the case of former Naval Intelligence chief, Vice Admiral Ted N. Branch, both the Navy and the Department of Justice declined to prosecute after a three-year investigation.
Corruption prevention
In February 2018, through Admiral Bill Moran, the Vice Chief of Naval Operations, the navy announced the implementation of increased oversight and other measures and policies to deter a repeat of the widespread corruption in the "Fat Leonard" case. Glenn Fine, the principal deputy in the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Defense, said the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the criminal investigative arm of the DOD's OIG, said GDMA, Francis' contract firm, created a scheme to defraud the Navy of tens of millions of dollars via overbilling for supplying goods and services. The Navy created a Consolidated Disposition Authority, or CDA, tasked with determining whether hundreds of Navy officers should be charged under the UCMJ, or alternatively, to be subjected to administrative actions. Fine said the CDA has already adjudicated 300-plus cases.
Individuals involved
Except for Sharon Kaur's case, which is being tried in Singapore, and those of five persons charged in military courts (Captain John F. Steinberger, Commander David A. Morales, Commander Jason W. Starmer, Lt. Peter L. Vapor, and Chief Warrant Officer Brian T. Ware), all court proceedings as of September 16, 2017, are in U.S. federal court.
References
External links
- Q&A interview with Defense News naval warfare correspondent Chris Cavas on the topic of the Fat Leonard Scandal, May 7, 2017, C-SPAN
Source of article : Wikipedia
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