Fat Leonard Navy Corruption Scandal

Please tell me there is another side to this story. This may senior officers involved????
 
Please tell me there is another side to this story. This may senior officers involved????

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.
 
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I hope 10 nights of women and hotels was worth losing everything and gaining 4 years in the pokey...

Whole new meaning to "character is who you are when no one is looking."
 
The conversation you don't want to have with your children - and knowing they can find it all on the net. These stories will live on for a long, long time.
 
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.

I'm not surprised at corruption in the military. Yes, we try to hold ourselves to higher standards but we are human. Still, the incidents I either witnessed or read about were onesies and twosies. Col Johnson the CO of the 173rd Airborne comes to mind. My first CO was a piece of work- using combat aircraft to transport his family, stealing from the company fund, using government parts to repair his POV, disappearing for days with an aircraft and not telling anyone where he was with it. But these were isolated individuals. But this...
 
My first CO was a piece of work- using combat aircraft to transport his family, stealing from the company fund, using government parts to repair his POV, disappearing for days with an aircraft and not telling anyone where he was with it.

Was he caught? How many folks knew what he was doing?
 
Was he caught? How many folks knew what he was doing?

Yes and no. We were isolated from our BN, so he was able to do as he wished. I tried to stand up to him as an O-2, but was put under house arrest and faced a court-martial for disobeying a direct order (that was illegal). The O-6 had to step in, but other officers and enlisted took note.

He was given a career ending fitness report and passed over for O-5. He tried to end the careers of the officers such as me who stood up to him by giving us poor fitness reports.

I appealed mine. In the process I put out in writing for the O-6 what had happened. He told me to contact any officer given a poor fitnesss report and have them appeal as well. He would put in a good word for us.

The fitness report I received was thrown out and the time deemed "unrated". I had already been passed over for O-3 due to the report, but a special board met and promoted me w/ a DOR effective from the previous board with back pay. Several other JOs had their fitness reports thrown out as well.

One of the officers who called me during the appeal investigation apologized on behalf of the Army to me that this guys was permitted to do the things he did. He said that JAG had considered bringing him back on active duty to prosecute him, but it was deemed that it would be too expensive for the possible results.
 
Wow! UHBlackhawk: your story is both a testament to "taking a stand no matter the cost" and a remarkable reversal by the "Army machine." Amazed that you were able to secure a promotion after the air was cleared AND get a backdated DOR. Glad you fought and won. There are many lessons in your story for others that follow you.
 
Oh, I almost forgot. A fellow JO went into procurement. Years later he was at a trade show, now as a an O-6. Who should he bump into... our former CO. Who had the audacity to ask for a civilian job. My friend just about fainted, recovered, then "politely" told our former CO to go fornicate with himself.
 
Oh, I almost forgot. A fellow JO went into procurement. Years later he was at a trade show, now as an O-6. Who should he bump into... our former CO. Who had the audacity to ask for a civilian job. My friend just about fainted, recovered, then "politely" told our former CO to go fornicate with himself.

People like that don't think they are doing anything wrong anyway, that other people do it, with no thought for the adverse impact on others, no remorse or regret, so why not ask for a job, probably thinking your procurement friend was making a big deal out of something that happened years ago...or worse, having no recollection of his actions. Those who are users seldom change into anything better.

Glad you fought. We all know you have to pick your battles sometimes, and walk away from some, but it's good to know there were some decent souls willing to help you fight.
 
@UHBlackhawk ,

It's a shame that the story of Fat Leonard and Super SEAL make headlines and one has to dig into the bowels of SAF to find yours. It's similar to defining down deviancy.

In your case, it required being a bada$$ to simply do the right thing.

Thank you for your service!
 
Col Johnson the CO of the 173rd Airborne comes to mind.

What a story.

You mentioned that he was passed over for O5, did they finally promote him anyway before he left the service.

Would have loved to see the look on his face at that trade show.
 
What a story.

You mentioned that he was passed over for O5, did they finally promote him anyway before he left the service.

Would have loved to see the look on his face at that trade show.
This was an old H-series company commanded by an O-4. It was a large aviation company with its own maintenance platoon and HHC platoon with a motor pool, chow hall, operations, and 3/5 (refuel rearmament) sections in addition to the three line platoons.
 
I had a CO who did some shady some stuff. He kept trying to go around my back to the supply and maintenance Marines (who worked for me) to get away with it. I was not trained in these fields and was in constant contact with my supply officer back home to ensure I did it right. Started documenting everything and clearly articulated in email. Watching him get his rights read to him the minute he touched US soil from deployment was the greatest thing ever. He was forced to retire with a slap on the hand. In my old job I was told we had a vendor coming in for a dog and pony show. We never bought this stuff, but listened. Walked in the room and here he was. I told the company anyone but him could brief and he wasn't welcome in the room. Bad apples everywhere unfortunately.
 
Wow! UHBlackhawk: your story is both a testament to "taking a stand no matter the cost" and a remarkable reversal by the "Army machine." Amazed that you were able to secure a promotion after the air was cleared AND get a backdated DOR. Glad you fought and won. There are many lessons in your story for others that follow you.

My promotion was surreal. I was actually outprocessing from the Army due to my nonselection. My BN CO tracked me down (this was just prior to cell phones being widely used), had someone bring me to a phone were he gave me the news. He told me I could keep outprocessing, or I could come down to BN and pin on my silver RR tracks.
My wife was a flight student at the time. He had her pulled off the line but did not tell her why.

Normally promotions are somewhat low key. The BN CO made a point of having every officer not flying that day attend. He knew some had given me a hard time about being passed over and he wanted to make a point of showing them I'd been vindicated and that I would now have DOR on them.
He called me wife forward to promote me, then had the orders read, emphasizing the effective DOR for those assembled.
The process was repeated several times that year as other JOs from the unit were promoted.
 
nice story Blackhawk, folks need to remember there are plenty of principled leaders in the military and that the good folks drastically outnumber the bad. The fat leonard scandal, petraeus and the marine major at USNA are all reminders that we are in an era of declining morals and military officers who were raised in a more liberal and permissive world; many don't understand concepts like integrity and doing the right thing. Unfortunate but it is what it is.
 
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