Announcer this week on q a, defense news Naval Warfare correspondent chris cavas talks about the navys fat leonard bribing scandal, with more than two dozen Navy Officials including several admirals. Brian chris cavas, let me start by asking you what you do for a living. Chris i am a journalist. I cover naval affairs, things that are on, over, and above the water. I like to cover them worldwide. I like to talk about the industry that builds these things, the people who operate them, who buy them, the people who determine requirements. The operations they do and why does anybody need all this stuff and does any have it really work . I write about things like that. Brian who reads it . Chris the industry, the hill, politicians. Defense news is a worldwide publication. We are sometimes remarkably wellknown. People in the naval industry around the world Pay Attention to us. Senior officers Pay Attention to us, senior acquisition officers. How big the publication and who owns it . Chris i cannot even tell you because i am not up on the latest stats. We are owned by a Company Called site line media, that includes army times, navy times, air force times, about people in the service. It is not about them really, but it is about things that affect their lives. We have a division called history and that the talks about things that are old. Brian i want to show you some video from a Company CalledGlenn Marine Group asia. It is just a minute, a promo from them, and ask you to explain how they fit in right now. [begin video clip] narrator headquartered in singapore, the Glenn Marine Group is a premier integrated Maritime Service provider. It has its own proprietary blend of assets. Its scale of operations spans 54 million square miles, represented by a Global Network of nine regional offices that have operated in more than 32 countries. Narrator the Glenn Marine Groups Flagship Company is asiapacifics leading brands in naval fleet support. Its services extend well beyond pierside. As an integrated, Onestop Center for all of the navy needs, glenn defense asia is able to provide a wide range of customized solutions. [end video clip] brian why does this company matter, a singaporebased company, matter to the United States navy . Chris when ships travel from port to port, a ship is a selfcontained entity. It takes care of itself. When it goes into port it needs a number of support services. It starts with, i need a pilot to meet me at a certain location at a certain time. I probably need tugs to escort me, a place to drop the hook, or tie up. I need someone to be there so i can get on and off my ship. I need to have somebody arrange to get shore power if i need it, food and water if i want it. Even then i may want somebody to have some taxis and phones available, and i want a reception and i need some catering services. So, there are companies called husbanding agents. Husbanding, like husband and wife. It is a very old term. It is nothing new, a classic maritime term. So worldwide, ports have husbanding companies, have husbanding agents, and we need those services so we are a global navy. The United States navy travels all over the world. Everywhere we go we need someone to take care of the services so we need to bid out on the services. And get somebody to do that for us. It is key to being able to operate in a certain area, to do rest and relaxation in a certain area. Without it, you cannot do it. Brian let me ask you in a different way. What has that company done to the navy . Chris for one thing, it has completely embarrassed the United States navy, shocked the culture of the navy that people were corrupted to provide glenn Defense Marine mostly with information about ship movements, but other things as well, in exchange for not that much money but fairly lavish lifestyles. So they threw fabulous parties, had great dinners, provided prostitutes for a lot of people, really expensive gifts for their wives, paid for family vacations. We are talking on the order of 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 for a weekend, some of their parties. I mean, dinner could cost 20,000 to 30,000 for six people. Brian let me read you a summary of what has happened until now. This is what is known, investigators have said that more than 200 people have come under scrutiny. Among them are eight newly indicted Navy Officials including an admiral, 13 people who have pleaded guilty, six others who have been charged, four admirals who have been disciplined, two others known to be under investigation, and 150 others not identified. Chris glenn Defense Marine was one of the most sophisticated operations like this in the western pacific. They had operations throughout the western pacific. Anybody in the western pacific at any time who made a port call, which was everybody, had some contact with something that was glenn Defense Marine whether they knew it or not. So there are many levels of people who are involved with this. Some people had virtually no involvement other than they were there. Some were more deeply involved. There was certainly criminal behavior, people who broke their oaths. Who broke the confidence that was around them. They were passing information and had inappropriate relations. On any number of levels. The people who did this are by and large, remarkably capable people. They are professionally respected. A lot of these people were widely known for their professional accomplishments, not because of before they were arrested. Some of these people have a lot had a lot of respect from a lot of people. They were not dumb people. But they clearly were doing some dumb things and what is interesting, they did not make that much money for it. This was not like, people were not making a few hundred thousand dollars here. Nobody made a million dollars. They were selling their careers for fairly short. That surprises people. People are surprised that so many people could be compromised like this. But glenn Defense Marine wanted information. So they wanted to know where ships were going to be. They could prepare for it. They had certain ports where they have a lot of power. We own a lot of the concessions in this port, we do not own a lot of concessions in that port. We hear you are going to that port. Can you do to can to see the two dont go there and come here. They would approach key officers, for the most part, like on the planning staff. The seventh fleet is the u. S. Fleet in the western pacific based in japan. They would approach Operations Officers and planning officers, protocol officers worried about where are we going to go. For example, the navy pays a great deal of attention to r r. We have lots of ships that go to the middle east. You might be surprised to know that four to five months in the persian gulf is not a party time. Particularly if we have ships full of young 20yearolds who want to have a good time, and they really do work hard. Theres not a lot of opportunity to blow off steam in the mideast. There is some, it is not barren. But it is not like some other parts of the world so when ships are in transit, coming and going to the United States and passing through the pacific, that might be the best part, the best opportunity that the navy has to give the crew of that Aircraft Carrier a welldeserved break. Let me put on the screen a fellow who calls himself i do not know why he calls himself this a fellow called fat leonard. Who is he and how does he impact this . Chris he was a largerthanlife guy. For allow you was larger to most people. He was close to 400 pounds at one point. He has lost a lot of weight. He was a big, fat guy. He was fat leonard. Extremely gregarious and outgoing. He is the classic host. We are here to have a good time, great to see you, i have arranged all of this. Come into this room, see what we have for you. He would ingratiate himself with everybody. He was a classic manipulator. He would go out of his way to be seen with anybody of any importance. He would have photographers there to take pictures with any significant person at any social event. Here is fat leonard, great to see you, admiral. And oh, heres the photographer, lets smile. Everybody has had their pictures taken. Brian we have an example of former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff mike molen with fat leonard. Did he know who he was . Chris everybody knew that he was fat leonard and he ran glenn defense marina. Did they know this corruption was going on and so much was happening in the background . It does not appear that was the case at all. For every one of these pictures, frankly as a newspaper, i am reluctant sometimes to run these pictures because there is there are hundreds of. One of the first pictures that came out was one with the cno just after mike molen, gary roughhand. Everybody is had these pictures taken. Everybody was there. It is a gladhanding thing. They did not necessarily have to be doing anything. Brian where is fat leonard today . Chris in jail in san diego, california. He was arrested in 2013, lured to the United States. It was a the investigation going on right now is spearheaded by the department of justice started off as a ncis investigation. Leonard, i think he is a resident of singapore. He wasnt born there, but brian hes malaysian. Chris malaysian. He was lured to the United States to close a business deal so they got him in the u. S. With u. S. Jurisdiction and he was arrested. He has pled guilty. He has not been sentenced. He pled guilty in 2015. Hes not been sentenced, he is not the only one who has not been sentenced who has pled guilty, so the prosecution is over but they have not adjudicated. The supposition there and this is just a supposition because justice will not confirm this is that he is still providing information to the investigation, and they are waiting to see how far that goes. Brian how many former Navy Officials are in prison . Chris in prison, i am not sure right now. There have been 25 charged total. Almost half of them are now in prison one way or another. Theyve been sentenced. Brian let me go back to 2015, march 2015 just to put an official touch on this. This is the former secretary of the navy who used to be the governor of mississippi talking at a hearing on capitol hill. [begin video clip] the reason this was uncovered is that we set up financial tripwires that glenn Defense Marine asia, gdma, went across. So red flags were raised. Ncis investigated this for three years with no leaks. During that investigation we found an ncis agent was furnishing mr. Francis with information, that they set up false information to him. And it led to mr. Francis believing that the investigation had been shut down. It allowed us to arrest him on american soil. [end video clip] brian how well did he handle this . Chris i am not sure. Ray mavis is the kind of person people criticize heavily or they do not criticize heavily. There is not much of a middle ground. Frankly, i am not sure what else he could have done and i think this was done pretty well. This investigation began in 2010. The agent that was being referred to was something that leonard was always, part of his modus operandi of getting moles in different places was letting them know, warn of probing in operations. They gave him permission to work it out. False information to work it out. When the arrests were made, the navy moved with some alacrity to suspend operations with glenn Defense Marine. The secretary of war instigated an audit of all of their practices, all of their contracting practices, and an audit not just to look for inappropriate money going to glenn Defense Marine but also weaknesses in contracting that would allow these excesses and abuses to work their way in. It was an organizational approach to it, it was not just an effort to grab people on this particular gdma issue. There was another husbanding company which also was sued by the navy around this time period for what the navy viewed as excesses. Not nearly on the scale that gdma was at. The navy set it up brian consolidated Disposition Authority, what in the world is that . Chris the idea is that justice runs its own investigation, and justice is looking for criminal activity. Justice is not about ethics, it is about criminal behavior. If they have people, they investigated somebody, if they find no criminal behavior and nothing they can charge anybody with, they are done with that person. They then turn that investigation over to the navy run consolidated Disposition Authority, consolidated in the sense that there are different entities within the navy that could be investigating this. Why have all of these different units . We will do it one effort consolidated. So the navy runs its own investigation on these people looking for ethics violations. Youre right, you did not break the letter of the law but certainly broke the standards of behavior that you were sworn to and that we expect people to adhere to. That has turned into its own, that has taken on a life of its own. That has had a major effect on the navy, particularly the officer corps. It continues to have a major effect and has no end in sight. People cannot find out what they are investigated for. You cannot confront your accuser. It has become a pernicious investigation affecting hundreds of people and there is no way to quantify it. I personally know a surprising number of people who appear to be under investigation. Are you still under investigation by justice or has justice turned that over to the cda . Its hard to tell. Brian let me put a face to this. It might be a little tedious for people watching, but it puts a depth to understand to this. Here is a rear admiral, status, pleaded guilty june 2016 to making a false official statement. Criminal sentence pending, reduced in rank to captain and retired from active duty. He was an admiral. How bad is this . Chris from the criminal investigation, there have been admirals caught up in this but they are not charged with behavior as an admiral. So people are promoted. So the behavior, and actually, if i am recalling correctly, they did not charge him with any actual conduct with gdma. They got him with lying to investigators. Brian will he go to prison . Chris i think he has some personal issues, i dont know what theyll do with him. Brian lets continue. Captain daniel dusek. Brian he is in prison. Brian former of the uss bonner richard. There he is on the screen. He is a captain, and why is he in prison . Chris he was in the middle of all of this and was part and parcel of some of the worst behavior. He guided ships to ports that were controlled by glenn Defense Marine. He provided classified information on ship movements. The classified information that is always referred to, as far as im aware of, in almost every case is about ship movements, planned the ship movements in advance. It is not necessarily unusual that we would share such information with a foreign commercial company or partner, but none of this was done through any official channels. This was all just stuff feeding to them. Dusek was right in the middle of them and for a while he enjoyed a pretty good lifestyle. He was routinely at some wonderful, fabulous restaurants, great hotels, big time parties, lots of very expensive booze and very expensive cigars and lots of very expensive prostitutes. Brian all paid for by . Chris all paid for by glenn Defense Marine. He had contact with fat leonard. Brian i am going to bring up another fellow, because this story, it is a hard one. The fellow from a little town in illinois. He was born in cambodia, brought over to this country by a woman in the u. S. Army, raised in this country, and what happened to him . Chris this photo, that is a really sad photo. At the time of this photo he was the Commanding Officer of the destroyer that made a port call to cambodia, the First Official u. S. Navy visit to cambodia since 1975 and he was the Commanding Officer. These were actually family members that came to meet him. This was a terribly touching moment. He was a i mean, i know i have actually i know people who served with him. I actually interviewed him extensively. He was a very well thought of officer. People were stunned when they found out he was caught up with this. But he is a good example of the kind of targeted individual that gdma would go after. So most of these people did not start off there are some exceptions but most of the exceptions were in the very first wave of arrests. In 2013. So, the people who were complicit in these Ongoing Operations were byandlarge targeted in one way or another. Brian where is he now . Chris in prison for 76 months. I believe he is the longest, he has got the longest prison sentence so far which is somewhat surprising. Brian i think one of them got 12 years. I want to show you some video of when he went back to linn arce, illinois, spoke to his high school. It was a heroes welcome. Just listen to what he had to say. [begin video clip] thank god we have the best volunteer force in the world. This reminds me of [indiscernible] it is ok to be a happy sheep. [indiscernible] for it is the sheepdogs in our military who keep watch, and we will take action to keep the world safe. [end video clip] brian after he was convicted and sent to prison, when was the last time you talked to him . Chris just a few days before he reported to federal prison. Brian what was his attitude . Chris he has accepted it. I think he is more resentful. He thinks he was really stupid. He is still rationalizing a good bit of it. He is upset that he thinks other people were worse than he was and do not seem to have gotten punished as much as he has. He said there is still lots of people out there who have yet to be arrested. Brian one of