Contractor at center of Navy bribery scandal expected to plead guilty
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Version 0 of 1. A Malaysian defense contractor at the center of one of the biggest corruption cases in the Navy’s history is expected to plead guilty Thursday, giving federal prosecutors a major victory in criminal proceedings that have already ensnared several high-ranking commanders. Leonard Glenn Francis, a charismatic businessman who made a fortune servicing Navy vessels in the Pacific, has been in federal custody since he was arrested in San Diego in a sting operation in September 2013. He is accused of bribing Navy officers with prostitutes, cash, luxury travel and other favors in exchange for a stream of classified and inside information that he allegedly used to bilk the Navy out of tens of millions of dollars. Known in Navy circles as “Fat Leonard” — according to court records, he stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 350 pounds — Francis had been fighting the charges since his arrest. But his attorneys filed notice in federal court in San Diego that he would change his plea at a hearing Thursday. Five other people have pleaded guilty in the case, including a Navy captain, a retired lieutenant commander, an enlisted officer and a senior agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. The criminal investigation has spanned eight states and eight Asian countries, with more than 100 law-enforcement agents involved, court records show. Other Navy officers, including two admirals, have been suspended or reassigned by the Navy pending internal military investigations. Francis fancied tuxedos and cigars and was on a first-name basis with scores of admirals whose tours of duty brought them to Asia over the past 15 years. If, as expected, he cooperates with prosecutors as part of his plea deal, more Navy officials could come under scrutiny in the coming months. Attorneys for Francis did not return phone calls or e-mails Wednesday seeking comment. A spokeswoman for federal prosecutors in San Diego declined to comment. Starting in 2011, Francis’s Singapore-based Glenn Defense Marine Asia won contracts worth more than $200 million to provide port services for Navy vessels across a huge stretch of maritime territory, from India to Japan to Australia. Court papers previously filed in the case describe the relative ease with which Francis bribed officers with the Navy’s 7th Fleet to steer aircraft carriers to ports controlled by his firm across Asia. The company would then gouge the Navy for security, food, fuel, fresh water and sewage removal, often by submitting false or inflated invoices, according to documents filed by prosecutors. Records also show that federal investigators have been scrutinizing Glenn Defense Marine and its billing practices since at least 2009. But instead of declaring the firm off-limits, the Navy kept giving it more business until Francis was arrested in 2013. For much of the time, Francis was able to thwart the probes by bribing a senior NCIS agent, who tipped him off about the investigations and fed him sensitive law-enforcement files, according to court records. |