It is a record-size poopstorm.
Years of corruption - search on Fat Leonard, best sources for ongoing stories are San Diego Union-Tribune (trial hq) and Wash Post. LinkedIn too.
Massive scale, in terms of business (port calls for Navy ships, and all the $$$$ entailed) inappropriately funneled to a fleecing specialist who had recruited an active ring of Navy folk who could influence opskeds to favor the contractor. The ring members recruited new incoming staff as they rotated out. Rewards in the form of staggering levels of baksheesh.
As an Ops officer as a LT in Naples, IT, I scheduled MSC tankers, dry cargo and special mission USNS ships into port calls all around the Med. I dealt with contracted port agents to whom we paid fees to pay for harbor pilot, docking, tugs, berthing, arranging deliveries, stevedores, picking up new crew at airport, CHT tank pumping (sewage), inport repairs, etc., plus their commission. Big dollars, part of the operating budget. I was offered cases of wine, stays at vacation villas on Capri, seafood deliveries, expensive lunches, all with the expectation I might choose them over a rival. That's how they did business, and they tried with me. I am sure the Greeks and Phoenicians dealt with the same. Of course, I said no to all that - we all get the ethics training. I continue to be amazed that so many senior and successful officers who knew better, just dove headfirst into the 5-digit dinners, Cohiba cigars, paid female companions and more.
Sordid.
I didn't mean to go on about it... I am embarrassed for the Navy for the sheer scope of length of years this went on and the number of people who participated with open eyes.
I think I posted this elsewhere, but can't recall - the actual indictment of the latest group arrested and charged. Damning.
https://news.usni.org/2017/03/14/24598-fat-leonard-document
The other side of the story? I think they have them dead to rights with emails and testimony, so the "everyone has been doing it this way for years here in the Far East" will not fly very far. No inadvertency as far as I can see, and very definitely a lot of "the officer knew or should have known" scenarios.
The prosecutors are rolling this up from the bottom, harvesting testimony and others implicated from each wave of arrests, as they move up the food chain.