For almost a decade the US Navy has struggled through an ongoing corruption and bribery scandal involving ship support contractor Glenn Defense Marine Asia, a firm run by Leonard Glenn Francis, a Malaysian national known as “Fat Leonard.” U.S. federal prosecutors have filed criminal charges against 33 people in connection with the scandal, in what has been described as “perhaps the worst national-security breach of its kind to hit the Navy since the end of the Cold War.”

Navy officials pledged to clean up their contracting processes in response to the Fat Leonard scandal, but a new case suggests that corruption persists.

The Washington Post is reporting that Federal agents are investigating a new U.S. Navy corruption case that has strong echoes of the Fat Leonard scandal, with a defense contractor facing accusations that he delivered cash bribes and bilked the Navy out of at least $50 million to service its ships in foreign ports, according to recently unsealed court records.
 
The Justice Department is trying to extradite the contractor — Frank Rafaraci, chief executive of Multinational Logistics Services, or MLS — from Malta, the Mediterranean island where he was arrested last week after an international manhunt. At Rafaraci’s initial court appearance, on Sept. 27, a Maltese magistrate ruled, however, that the businessman could remain free while his extradition proceedings unfold.

Rafaraci, 68, is a dual U.S.-Italian citizen who splits his time between the United Arab Emirates and Sicily. According to an arrest warrant unsealed last week in U.S. District Court in Washington, Rafaraci and MLS defrauded the Navy of at least $50 million by inflating invoices for port services between 2011 and 2018.

The Washington Post reports that Federal authorities are also seeking Rafaraci’s extradition on suspicion of money laundering and bribery. The arrest warrant alleges that he met with an unnamed U.S. Navy official at the Diplomat Hotel in Manama in August 2015, handed over an envelope stuffed with $20,000 in cash and told the official to “keep up the good work.”

The unnamed U.S. Navy official pleaded guilty in June to a bribery charge in U.S. District Court in Washington and agreed to become a cooperating witness for the government. His identity and his criminal case file remain under seal.

Thanks to Irwin Bryan for contributing to this post.