WP: Admiral, seven others charged with corruption in new ‘Fat Leonard’ indictment

[visionary]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/admiral-seven-others-charged-with-corruption-in-new-fat-leonard-indictment/2017/03/14/faf01600-08da-11e7-b77c-0047d15a24e0_story.html?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.825b6151c587

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Admiral, seven others charged with corruption in new ‘Fat Leonard’ indictment

 

The Justice Department unsealed a fresh indictment Tuesday charging eight current and former Navy officials — including an admiral — with corruption and other crimes in the “Fat Leonard” bribery case, escalating an epic scandal that has dogged the Navy for the past four years.

 

Among those charged were Rear Adm. Bruce Loveless, a senior Navy intelligence officer based at the Pentagon, as well as several Navy captains and a retired colonel from the Marine Corps. The charges cover a period of eight years, from 2006 through 2014.

 

The Navy personnel are accused of taking bribes in the form of lavish gifts, prostitutes and luxury hotel stays courtesy of Leonard Glenn Francis, a Singapore-based defense contractor who has already pleaded guilty to defrauding the Navy of tens of millions of dollars.

 

The indictment lists page after page of bribes allegedly provided to the defendants — seven senior officers and one enlisted sailor — including $25,000 watches, $2,000 boxes of Cohiba cigars, $2,000 bottles of cognac and $600-per-night hotel rooms.

 

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On another port visit by the Blue Ridge to Manila in February 2007, Francis allegedly hosted another sex party for officers in the MacArthur Suite of the Manila hotel. During the party, “historical memorabilia related to General Douglas MacArthur were used by the participants in sexual acts,” according to the indictment.

 

In exchange, according to federal prosecutors, the officials provided Francis with classified or inside information that enabled his firm, Glenn Marine Defense Asia, to gouge the Navy out of tens of millions of dollars.

 

[TradeTheBeal!]

Just now charged?  This thing has been going on forever.

[LadySkinsFan]

Probably trying to button it up.

 

I guess that's one way to win contracts. Burns me up though, when I spent my entire career developing skills to win ethically and legally.

[Destino]

Did they not have the option to rob us blind by going wildly over budget like other defense contractors?  

[Spaceman Spiff]

More details about the sex parties.  C'mon.  

[Springfield]

I suppose this is the slippery slope you travel when you contract everything out.

[LD0506]

1 hour ago, Springfield said:

I suppose this is the slippery slope you travel when you contract everything out.

 

Apparently some slopes are slipperier than others, right?

 

[China]

Military nude photo investigation expands into gay porn websites

 

WASHINGTON — The military scandal involving sharing of sexually explicit images of troops has expanded beyond the private social media site Marines United to a slew of gay pornography web pages with images of men wearing military uniforms engaged in sex acts, USA TODAY has learned.

 

The broadened investigation to an increasing number of websites underscores the complexity of policing social media sites where sensitive images can be uploaded in an instant for all to see. In the case of the sites with gay pornography, military investigators will be tasked with determining whether active-duty troops were involved in conduct that could bring discredit on their service, a potential violation of military law.

 

The Marine Corps is not the only service affected. Images of men in the uniforms of sailors, soldiers and airmen also appear on an array of Tumblr sites. Similar to the Marines United case, it is unclear whether men appearing in the images — some photographed engaging in sex — provided consent to have their images shared publicly. Victims of so-called revenge porn in the Marines United case have limited protection under military law if the photographs or videos were taken originally with their consent.

 

The Pentagon has established a joint military task force to handle the growing investigation, said MaryAnn Cummings, a spokeswoman for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[skinsmarydu]

 

Yuck.

[visionary]

 

[TheGreatBuzz]

5 hours ago, visionary said:

 

Did they put out a list of who they are investigating?

 

Asking for a friend.....

[skinsmarydu]

Whew!  Just honorably discharged, not active or retired! 

Who knew this would be important, ever?  Seriously. 

[zoony]

Insane!  The real problem IMO is the admirals having so much say in procurement.  That needs to not be the case

[TheGreatBuzz]

22 minutes ago, zoony said:

Insane!  The real problem IMO is the admirals having so much say in procurement.  That needs to not be the case

Would you prefer crooked politicians?

[Sacks 'n' Stuff]

On 3/14/2017 at 4:38 PM, visionary said:

During the party, “historical memorabilia related to General Douglas MacArthur were used by the participants in sexual acts,” according to the indictment.

It was the corn cob pipe, wasn't it?

 

[zoony]

16 minutes ago, TheGreatBuzz said:

Would you prefer crooked politicians?

 

Yes.  But, those arent the only two options

[Jumbo]

On 3/14/2017 at 2:52 PM, Destino said:

Did they not have the option to rob us blind by going wildly over budget like other defense contractors?  

  

 

The actual tax dollars lost to waste and corruption in the "defense industry" are a monumental factor in our debt, and one that remains 90% hidden and has for a long time. There's massive fraud in medicare/medicaid and other areas too, of course, but even they are much less than what goes on in this stuff---and there are so many secret ways they draw money, too. National security can be quite the racket.

[TheGreatBuzz]

13 hours ago, Jumbo said:

  

 

The actual tax dollars lost to waste and corruption in the "defense industry" are a monumental factor in our debt, and one that remains 90% hidden and has for a long time. There's massive fraud in medicare/medicaid and other areas too, of course, but even they are much less than what goes on in this stuff---and there are so many secret ways they draw money, too. National security can be quite the racket.

I usually use my expertise here to tell people they are wrong.  But this is 100000% right!  Sadly, its probably actually much worse than most people can imagine.

[Jumbo]

4 hours ago, TheGreatBuzz said:

I usually use my expertise here to tell people they are wrong.  But this is 100000% right!  Sadly, its probably actually much worse than most people can imagine.

 

 

There's a lot of stuff I don't talk much about here, including stories i could tell from my associations with personnel and events at places like NSB Bangor, PSNS, NUWC in Keyport, JB Lewis-McChord etc.---just on this topic. Prior, even though I knew it's a major issue, some of what I heard I would have regarded as typical exaggerated hearsay bs, but now I know better. Not a warm feeling.

[TheGreatBuzz]

2 hours ago, Jumbo said:

 

 

There's a lot of stuff I don't talk much about here, including stories i could tell from my associations with personnel and events at places like NSB Bangor, PSNS, NUWC in Keyport, JB Lewis-McChord etc.---just on this topic. Prior, I would normally have thought that even though I know it's a major issue, some of what I heard i would have regarded as typical exaggerated hearsay bs, but now I know better. Not a warm feeling.

I think I have told the story here before but I remember when we spent $30k on 6 walkie talkies and a charging station (NOT an exaggeration).  I FLIPPED.  I saw a lot of other things that drove me nuts ($20 for a ream of paper) but those radios were just crazy.  What made it worse was it wasn't technically fraud/waste/abuse because it was an approved contract.  Approved or not, that is still wasteful.  Especially when my needs could have been met with a $20 set of walmart walkie talkies with Spiderman on them.

[SkinsFTW]

And those walkie talkies aren't even the tip of the iceberg.

 

The real money is in the repair of all of the millions of pieces of equipment. The govt intentionally gets stuck with 1960s to 1980s era equipment contracts by the 100s of thousands. One single circuit board has its prom chip battery go dead, the replacement board is over 100k because you can't just buy and solder on a new 50¢ battery and replacing the obsolete system with something 1000x faster off of eBay that costs 20 dollars is breach of contract and doesn't meet any standards.

 

Or a tiny plastic screw on light bulb cover on a piece of shipboard or aircraft electronics breaks and its replacement is over 100 dollars each, but there are 10-50 of them on each piece and they get broken repeatedly.

 

This is for everything on everything from electronics, engines etc. If you work at a repair facility you could spend what seems an infinite amount of money on a daily basis the whole time thinking WTF??? Seriously???

[visionary]

 

[PleaseBlitz]

1 hour ago, visionary said:

 

 

Weird, I was expecting the WaPo's usual well-sourced investigative journalism and Pulitzer winning writing, but when you click on this article is just says:

 

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Hookers and blow.  It was a lot of hookers and blow.  

 

[visionary]

 

[visionary]