Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in the federal trial of five Navy officers accused of bribery in the wide-ranging “Fat Leonard” scheme.
More than two dozen defendants have entered guilty pleas to bribery and corruption charges involving Glenn Defense Marine Asia and its one-time leader, “Fat Leonard” Glenn Francis.
The decade-long investigation involves scores of U.S. Navy officials and officers, along with civilians and U.S. Marine Corps personnel accused of engaging in fraud worth millions of dollars, along with taking millions of dollars in bribes.
GDMA is a Singapore-based defense contractor that has serviced Navy ships and submarines in the Pacific for decades.
Francis was accused of bribing Navy personnel with cash, luxury travel, expensive meals, consumer electronics and prostitutes in exchange for classified and propriety information to win contracts and favorable treatment for his company.
The latest guilty pleas from officers were entered in the last two months.
Donald Hornbeck, 61, the fourth member of the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet to plead guilty, used his position to help direct Navy ships to ports Francis controlled, allowing GDMA to provide services to the vessels, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Prosectors allege GDMA over-billed the Navy by more than $35 million for those services. Hornbeck also shared confidential Navy information with Francis and helped recruit other Navy members into the scheme, investigators said.
Cmdr. Stephen Shedd, 48, who served as the Seventh Fleet South Asia Policy and Planning Officer and later as commanding officer of the USS Milius, admitted in January to accepting bribes in exchange for assisting GDMA. His plea agreement states that he and eight other Seventh Fleet members accepted more than $250,000 in gifts from Francis.
Francis, 57, pled guilty in 2015 to charges of bribery, conspiring to commit bribery, and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. As part of their plea agreements, Francis and his firm said they would forfeit $35 million and pay full restitution to the Navy, in an amount to be determined at sentencing. He has yet to be sentenced.
– Staff and wire reports
