US Navy agent to plead guilty in graft probe involving CEO of S’pore-based firm

SAN DIEGO — A senior criminal investigator from the United States Navy downloaded more than 100 confidential files for an Asian defence contractor at the centre of a multi-million-dollar fraud investigation, prosecutors say.

In exchange, John Beliveau II accepted luxury trips from the Malaysian defence contractor, Leonard Glenn Francis, who would arrange for prostitutes to meet him, according to charging documents.

Beliveau’s lawyer said his client was set to plead guilty to bribery charges yesterday in federal court in San Diego. The conviction will be a first for federal prosecutors in the massive scandal that has netted the arrests of three Navy officials and prompted the military branch to suspend two admirals’ access to classified material.

Lawyers and prosecutors declined to say whether Beliveau would now cooperate with the authorities.

Francis, the 49-year-old Chief Executive of Singapore-based Glenn Defense Marine (Asia), or GDMA, offered bribes to Navy officers in exchange for confidential information, including ship routes, or for following his requests to move Navy vessels to Asian ports with lax oversight so that the company could inflate costs and invent tariffs by using phony port authorities.

In exchange, Francis, who is known in military circles as Fat Leonard because of his wide girth, lined up prostitutes, luxury hotel stays and tickets to shows for the officials, including a Lady Gaga concert in Thailand, a criminal complaint said.

The company cheated the Navy out of US$10 million (S$12.5 million) in one year in Thailand alone, US Attorney Laura Duffy said.

Francis, who was arrested in September, and his cousin Alex Wisidagama, a company manager who was also arrested, have pleaded not guilty.

Navy Commanders Jose Luis Sanchez and Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz have also pleaded not guilty.

According to the complaint, Beliveau, 44, not only kept Francis abreast of the bribery probe but advised him on how to respond, as well as downloaded sensitive records from the case files of his fellow Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents. Prosecutors believe Beliveau later shared the details with Francis.

The two exchanged thousands of text messages.

Beliveau faces a maximum sentence of 20 years. AP