“Fat Leonard” Glen Francis

In a time of major cyber hacks and theft from data breaches, the Navy continues to be rocked by an old fashioned bribery scandal, the worst in Navy history. The scandal that has also revealed a massive national-security leak, which some describe as being the worst to hit the Navy since the end of the Cold War.  

In September of 2013, Navy investigators arrested a 350 pound Malaysian businessman,Leonard Glenn Francis, who was CEO of Glenn Defense Marine Asia (GDMA), a contractor who provided port services to the US Navy. Known universally as “Fat Leonard,” Francis was charged with paying bribes, providing prostitutes and handing out Lady Gaga tickets to naval officers in exchange for classified information to be used to help direct business to GDMA.

Since then the Navy has charged 12 people. An admiral and nine other Navy personnel have pleaded guilty to federal crimes. Five other defendants still face charges and the investigation is ongoing. Here are the latest convictions:

In June, Rear Adm. Robert Gilbeau pleaded guilty for attempting to conceal his relationship with “Fat Leonard” by destroying paper and computer files after Francis was arrested, as well as lying to investigators.  Admiral Gilbeau is awaiting sentencing.

In October, former Naval Criminal Investigative Service supervisory special agent John Bertrand Beliveau II was ordered to repay $20 million for his part in the bribery scheme and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.  Also in October, Lt. Cmdr. Gentry Debord pleaded guilty to a bribery conspiracy charge, admitting that he accepted cash, luxury hotel rooms and prostitutes.

In November, retired Navy captain Michael Brooks pleaded guilty to a bribery charges, admitting to accepting the services of prostitutes, getting free trips, lodging and gifts from Francis as payment for his help boosting GDMA.

In December, Navy contracting officer Paul Simpkins was sentenced to 6 years in prison and ordered to pay $450,000 in restitution, after pleading guilty to accepting bribes and the services of prostitutes.

How could a scandal of this scale have gone unnoticed? According to reporting by the Washington Post, the Navy repeatedly turned a blind eye to evidence of wrongdoing:

Starting in 2006, in response to a multitude of fraud complaints, NCIS opened 27 separate investigations into Francis’s company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia. In each of those instances, however, NCIS closed the case after failing to dig up sufficient evidence to take action against the firm, according to hundreds of pages of law enforcement records ­obtained by The Washington Post under the Freedom of ­Information Act….

Other Navy documents obtained by The Post show that staffers at U.S. Pacific Fleet headquarters were so worried about the potential for trouble that they drafted a new ethics policy to discourage Navy personnel from accepting favors from Francis. But their effort was blocked for more than two years by admirals who were friendly with the contractor, according to officials familiar with the matter.

Despite rising signs of widespread fraud, the Navy kept awarding business to Francis’s company. In 2011, Glenn Defense won deals valued at $200 million to service U.S. vessels at ports stretching from the Russian Far East to Australia….

Justice Department officials say there is no end in sight to the investigation and that 200 people have fallen under scrutiny. Among them are about 30 current or retired admirals, according to Navy ­officials.