Carl Prine at the San Diego Union-Tribune
offers a piece on the U.S. Navy’s handling of the ‘Fat Leonard’ bribery and
fraud cases.
Since 2014, federal
prosecutors in San Diego have compiled a perfect 16-0 record in convicting
corrupt Navy officers and defense contractors tied to the “Fat Leonard” bribery
scandal.
But when it comes to doling
out discipline to sailors and Marines passed over by the feds, the Navy’s
watchdog command targeting ethical scofflaws passes far more often than it
prosecutes.
About two out of every three
potential public corruption cases can’t be substantiated by military
investigators, the Navy said. The service has only one ongoing court-martial, a
pair of lighter nonjudicial punishment decisions and a handful of sternly written
rebukes of senior officers to show for more than three years of inquiries,
according to The San Diego Union-Tribune’s analysis of a trove of Navy files
obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
When he was the Navy
Secretary, Ray Mabus created the consolidated disposition authority — or CDA
for short — in the wake of the still-running criminal probe into Glenn Defense
Marine Asia, a now defunct Singapore-based defense contractor that was owned by
Malaysian tycoon Leonard Glenn “Fat Leonard” Francis (seen in the above photo).
In federal court, prosecutors
have secured convictions against Francis and four of his business colleagues;
nine Navy officers; an agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service; and
a civilian Department of Defense contracting supervisor.
They’ve also indicted 10
active-duty or retired service members and a trio of Glenn Defense employees.
You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:
Note: You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine piece on the Fat Leonard case via the below link:
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