Two More Navy officers Censured For Fat Leonard-Related Infractions

Geoff Ziezulewicz at the Navy Times offers a piece on two more Navy officers punished in the “Fat Leonard’ bribery and fraud case.

The Navy has censured a pair of commissioned officers for their roles in the Fat Leonard public corruption scandal.

The letters of censure issued to the captains by Navy Secretary Richard Spencer serve as both a public rebuke of their actions and shine more light into the web of kickbacks, payoffs and port contracts spun by the portly Leonard Glenn Francis (seen in the below photo) that cost U.S. taxpayers at least $35 million.

At least 10 captains and admirals have received similar written reprimands in recent years.

Capt. Heedong Choi’s (seen in the above photo) infractions took place from 2008 to 2013, as he served in several leadership positions in the Western Pacific, including as commanding officer of the guided-missile destroyer Chafee, according to the April 26 letter.

But Spencer concluded that his relationship with Francis went back to 2001, when Choi was a flag aide to the commander of 7th Fleet.

“As Flag Aide, Mr. Francis specifically described you as his means to ‘grease’ your Commander and the ‘pipeline’ between him and your Commander," Spencer wrote. "He also said you were on his ‘payroll’ since that time because you ‘kept delivering.”

…Retired Capt. Ricardo Martinez was also censured in an April 26 letter.

His Fat Leonard-related infractions took place while he was serving as the U.S. Naval attaché to Indonesia and New Zealand from 2001 to 2008, according to the reprimand.

Martinez received or solicited nearly $16,000 in gifts from Francis and his port services company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, or GDMA, and the April 26 censure letter contains a “chronological list of misconduct."

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/05/16/two-more-navy-officers-censured-for-fat-leonard-related-infractions/ 

You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine piece on the Fat Leonard case via the below link:

www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2017/03/my-piece-on-fat-leonard-us-navy-bribery.html