NT: Ex-Navy captain latest to plead guilty in ‘Fat Leonard’ scandal

[China]

Ex-Navy captain latest to plead guilty in ‘Fat Leonard’ scandal

 

A former U.S. Navy captain pleaded guilty to bribery Wednesday for accepting nearly $68,000 in dinners, hotels, parties and prostitutes from a Malaysian defense contractor, prosecutors said.

 

Donald Hornbeck, who entered the plea in San Diego federal court, acknowledged that while directing operations of combat ships in the 7th Fleet in the Western Pacific, he benefited Leonard Francis by steering ships to ports for service by the contractor’s Singapore-based company. Hornbeck also acknowledged that he shared confidential Navy information with Francis, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office.

 

Hornbeck is one of 34 Navy officials and defense contractors, including Francis, accused of a fraud and bribery scheme that among other things provided Glenn Defense Marine Asia with classified ship schedules, allowing them to beat competitors and overcharge for services.

 

Twenty-nine defendants have pleaded guilty.

 

The scheme cost the Navy some $35 million.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Captain Wiggles]

 

[TheGreatBuzz]

I can’t believe this is still getting people.

[China]

From port to port, testimony details ‘Fat Leonard’s’ alcohol- and sex-fueled parties

 

A former commander who pleaded guilty takes the witness stand against five former Navy colleagues accused of taking bribes
 

As a lieutenant commander in 2008, Stephen Shedd never considered reporting the gifts and favors that he said some of the senior staff of the Navy’s Seventh Fleet exchanged with the military contractor known as “Fat Leonard.”

 

For starters, Shedd himself was engaged in much of the same alleged behavior — accepting hotel rooms, meals and the services of prostitutes from Leonard Glenn Francis, the gregarious contractor nicknamed for his girth.

 

Besides, even if Shedd had wanted to report misconduct by his superiors, he had no confidence it would go anywhere.

 

“We had an understanding of mutually assured destruction,” Shedd testified Thursday to a jury. “We’d all go down in flames or we’d all be protected.”

 

The hammer eventually fell, in 2017, when Shedd and eight other former naval officers were together indicted on bribery and conspiracy allegations, as part of Francis’ ongoing scheme to corrupt strategically placed military members. Francis owned a Singapore-based husbanding company, which serviced visiting Navy ships in ports across Asia, and he counted on the influence and intelligence of naval officials to help him compete for contracts worth millions of dollars.

 

Shedd and three other co-defendants pleaded guilty before trial. This week, Shedd took the witness stand, testifying against the rest of his past colleagues: Former Rear Adm. Bruce Loveless; former Capts. David Newland, James Dolan and David Lausman; and former Cmdr. Mario Herrera.

 

Click on the link for some of the lurid details

[CousinsCowgirl84]

If someone is offering you a prostitute in exchange for contracts it’s a safe bet you're gonna get… you know.

Edited May 6, 2022 by CousinsCowgirl84

[Destino]

14 minutes ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

If someone is offering you a prostitute in exchange for contracts it’s a safe bet you're gonna get… you know.

Rabies?

 

This kind of sales pitch is more common than you’d think.  You see it pop up in corruption scandals across industries all the time.  It’s like there’s an unwritten rule that if you want to engage in some unfair business, you have to send hookers.  Weird.  

[China]

‘Fat Leonard,’ set to finally be sentenced in long-running Navy bribery scheme, is on the lam

 

The military contractor known as “Fat Leonard,” the mastermind behind the worst public corruption scandal in U.S. Navy history who was three weeks away from being sentenced in the case, is on the run.

 

Leonard Glenn Francis, who has been under house arrest, cut off his GPS monitoring ankle bracelet and absconded from his San Diego home sometime Sunday morning, said Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Omar Castillo.

 

Pretrial Services, the federal agency monitoring Francis, was alerted to an anomaly with Francis’ bracelet, and Francis’ defense team went to check on him, knowing he has a history of health issues. An attorney called San Diego police about 1:45 p.m., saying Francis was not answering their knocks or messages, and asked for a welfare check at the home in the Torrey Highlands neighborhood, according to police officials.

 

Officers arrived and entered the home through an unsecured door in a central courtyard and found the home empty — save for the sheared GPS bracelet left behind, according to police and marshals.

 

The U.S. Marshals Service was called to assist, and the San Diego Regional Fugitive Task Force was activated to begin the high-profile manhunt. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which spearheaded the massive case against Francis more than a decade ago, is also helping.

 

Neighbors in the gated community told authorities that they had seen U-Haul moving trucks going in and out of Francis’ home in the days leading up to his escape, Castillo said. It was not known if neighbors knew Francis was the tenant of the sprawling multi-million dollar home, which, according to real estate websites, has five bedrooms and seven baths. No one reported the moving trucks as suspicious, he said.

 

“He was planning this out, that’s for sure,” Castillo said.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Dan T.]

15 hours ago, China said:

 

The military contractor known as “Fat Leonard” is on the run waddle.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

^ ^ ^ Fixed.

 

Jokes aside, the guy has the means and the shady worldwide connections to be gone for a long time.  Sucks.

Edited September 7, 2022 by Dan T.

[tshile]

Yeah but they’re getting the people who facilitated what he did. 
 

Obviously you prefer he be in custody and stand trial but all is not lost when 34 members of the navy are being brought to justice. 
 

makes you wonder what other **** is going on no one’s discovered yet. 
 

[PleaseBlitz]

4 hours ago, Dan T. said:

 

^ ^ ^ Fixed.

 

Jokes aside, the guy has the means and the shady worldwide connections to be gone for a long time.  Sucks.

 

Over/under is 10 days before he's recaptured.  

[Dan T.]

2 hours ago, tshile said:

Yeah but they’re getting the people who facilitated what he did. 
 

Obviously you prefer he be in custody and stand trial but all is not lost when 34 members of the navy are being brought to justice. 
 

makes you wonder what other **** is going on no one’s discovered yet. 
 

 

Apparently he was already tried and was just 10 days away from his sentencing date. The guy has been scheming this escape for a while.  So I would take the over on @PleaseBlitz's bet. Hope I'm wrong.

[China]

U.S. authorities seek a defense contractor named Fat Leonard who fled house arrest

 

Nearly a dozen U.S. law enforcement agencies were searching for Francis on Tuesday. But officials acknowledged he may already be in Mexico, and possibly on his way back to Asia.

 

When asked about the bold escape Tuesday, his lawyer, Devin Burstein, who pushed for more leniency for his client, said: "At this time, I have no comment, sorry."

 

Sammartino repeatedly maintained that Francis, who was in poor health and needed medical care, could only remain under house arrest if private security guards were on site. At one point she expressed concern that if he were to escape and ended up "back in Malaysia for whatever reason," her name would come up if anyone asked "who let somebody do this without any security," according to a transcript of a closed-door hearing in February 2018 that was unsealed in January.

 

She raised similar concerns in another hearing on Dec. 17, 2020, after receiving a report that the home was left without anyone guarding it for nearly three hours, according to the court transcript. The guard said he had been on a long lunch break, and Francis apologized to the judge for the mishap.

 

It was unclear if round-the-clock security guards were still in place this weekend.

 

Click on the link for more

[Cooked Crack]

Quote

The felony convictions of four former Navy officers in one of the worst bribery cases in the maritime branch's history were vacated Wednesday due to questions about prosecutorial misconduct, the latest setback to the government's years-long efforts in going after dozens of military officials tied to Leonard Francis, a defense contractor nicknamed "Fat Leonard." 

 

U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino called the misconduct "outrageous" and agreed to allow the four men to plead guilty to a misdemeanor and pay a $100 fine each.

 

[tshile]

That’s a really long article that offers essentially no details on what happened. 
 

that’s a pretty big ****up. Given the seriousness of the accusations, that’s unacceptable. 

[Fergasun]

@tshile

The prosectutors hid evidence and didn't allow a proper defense. There are earlier articles that cover the filings:

1)  US Attorney Office (USAO) withheld statement from prostitute who USAO claimed had sex with one of accused.  Prostitute statement was it didn't happen.

 

2) Child porn was found on Fat Leonard and another witness computer and they weren't prosecuted.  While they never testified, prosecutor did not disclose that fact.  Defense alleged the lack prosecution for CP essentially compelled their testimony.

 

3) Several witnesses were coached by prosecutors and/or coherced to lie to keep  prosecutors happy.  This included people who pleaded guilty and then parroted the prosecutors version of events.

[LadySkinsFan]

Can't win by cheating. That includes the prosecutors. Geez, horrible.

[PleaseBlitz]

Jesus Christ, the Navy has really botched this whole thing from beginning to end.  

[tshile]

From the article it doesn’t sound like this was the Navy’s fault

 

Quote

The U.S. attorney's office handled the prosecution, offering independence from the military justice system.

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

I didn’t realize Fat Leonard had been captured somehow.  I thought he was still on the lam.

[TheGreatBuzz]

7 minutes ago, China said:

I didn’t realize Fat Leonard had been captured somehow.  I thought he was still on the lam.

 

All the articles are about the current news.  I'm trying to find if he was hiding in Venezuela or was in a prison there.

[TradeTheBeal!]

Nice work, Brandon.

[Fergasun]

@TheGreatBuzz

@China

Looks like he was apprehended in September 2022 trying to make his way to Russia....

 

https://news.usni.org/2022/09/22/interpol-fat-leonard-arrested-in-venezuela-trying-to-flee-to-russia

[CousinsCowgirl84]

It’s always interesting to see these folks try to go to some shady country like they are going to be welcome there… of course they  will be used as pawn, and in the meantime they gotta stay in some ****ty prison with no prisoners rights or care. Not to say American prisons are great, but they gotta be better than Russian or Venezuelan ones…

[China]

Misconduct In 'Fat Leonard' Case Sinks 3 More Guilty Pleas

 

Alleged prosecutorial misconduct has set up 3 more defendants charged in relation to the U.S. Navy's 'Fat Leonard' scandal to yank their original guilty pleas so they can plead guilty to much less serious charges.

 

Click on the link for more