The U.S. Justice Department
released the below information:
A retired U.S. Navy
captain pleaded guilty to criminal conflict of interest charges and a former
U.S. Navy master chief was sentenced to 17 months in prison today on corruption
charges. The defendants are among the latest U.S. Navy officials to plead
guilty and be sentenced in the expansive corruption and fraud investigation
involving foreign defense contractor Leonard Glenn Francis and his
Singapore-based ship husbanding company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia (GDMA).
Assistant Attorney
General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division,
U.S. Attorney Adam L. Braverman of the Southern District of California,
Director Dermot F. O’Reilly of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service
(DCIS) and Director Andrew L. Traver of the Naval Criminal Investigative
Service (NCIS) made the announcement.
Jeffrey Breslau, (seen on the left in the above 2012 photo) 52,
of Cumming, Georgia, pleaded guilty to one count of criminal conflict of
interest before U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino of the Southern District
of California. Breslau was charged in September 2018. Retired
Master Chief Ricarte Icmat David, 62, of Concepcion, Tarlac, Philippines, was
sentenced by Judge Sammartino, who also ordered him to serve a year of
supervised release and pay restitution of $30,000. David was charged in August
2018 and pleaded guilty in September to one count of conspiracy to commit
honest services wire fraud.
According to
admissions made as part of his guilty plea, from October 2009 until July 2012,
Breslau was a captain in the U.S. Navy assigned as director of public affairs
for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, headquartered in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. As
part of his duties, Breslau was involved in devising the U.S. Navy’s public
affairs communications strategy, and provided public affairs guidance to Pacific
Fleet components and other U.S. Navy commands. From August 2012 until
July 2014, Breslau was assigned to the commanding officer for the Joint Public
Affairs Support Element in Norfolk, Virginia, where he was responsible for
leading joint crisis communications teams.
Breslau admitted that
from March 2012 until September 2013, while serving in the above roles for the
U.S. Navy, he provided Francis with public relations consulting services,
including providing advice on how to respond to issues and controversies related
to Francis’s ship husbanding business with the U.S. Navy. These included
issues related to port visit costs, allegations of malfeasance such as the
unauthorized dumping of waste, disputes with competitors, and issues with
Pacific Fleet and contracting personnel. During the course of his
consulting agreement with Francis, Breslau authored, reviewed or edited at
least 33 separate documents; authored at least 135 emails providing advice to
Francis; provided at least 14 instances of “talking points” in advance of
meetings between Francis and high ranking U.S. Navy personnel; and “ghostwrote”
numerous emails on Francis’s behalf to be transmitted to U.S. Navy
personnel. During the course of this consulting agreement, Francis paid
Breslau approximately $65,000 without Breslau disclosing the agreement to the
U.S. Navy, Breslau admitted.
As part of his guilty
plea, David admitted that he was assigned various logistics positions with the
U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet, including with the Fleet Industrial Supply Center in
Yokosuka, Japan from June 2001 to July 2004; on the USS Essex from July 2004 to
August 2007; on the USS Kitty Hawk from September 2007 to August 2008; and on
the USS George Washington from September 2008 to July 2010. In these
positions, David was responsible for ordering and verifying goods and services
for the ships on which he served, including from contractors during port
calls. Throughout this period, David received from Francis various things
of value, including five star hotel rooms during every port visit, he
admitted.
David further admitted
that he repeatedly facilitated fraud on the United States by allowing Francis
and GDMA to inflate the husbanding invoices to bill for services never
rendered. For example, David instructed Francis to inflate invoices for
the USS Essex’s anticipated November 2007 port visit to the Philippines.
As David transitioned to a new position aboard the nuclear aircraft carrier USS
Kitty Hawk, on or about May 8, 2008, Francis’s company paid approximately 84,637.00
Hong Kong Dollars (HKD) for hotel reservations at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong for
U.S. Navy personnel assigned to the USS Kitty Hawk including 10,396 HKD for
David’s four-night stay in a Harbor View Room, David admitted.
Francis pleaded guilty
in 2015 to bribery and fraud charges, admitting that he presided over a
massive, decade-long conspiracy involving “scores” of U.S. Navy officials, tens
of millions of dollars in fraud and millions of dollars in bribes and lavish
gifts, including luxury travel, airline upgrades, five-star hotel
accommodations, top-shelf alcohol, the services of prostitutes, Cuban cigars,
Kobe beef and Spanish suckling pigs.
So far, 33 defendants
have been charged and 22 have pleaded guilty, many admitting to accepting
things of value from Francis in exchange for helping the contractor win and
maintain contracts and overbill the Navy by millions of dollars.
The case was
investigated by DCIS, NCIS and the Defense Contract Audit Agency. The
case is being prosecuted by Assistant Chief Brian R. Young of the Criminal
Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark W. Pletcher, Patrick
Hovakimian and Robert Huie of the Southern District of California.
You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine piece on the Fat Leonard scandal via the below link:
www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2017/03/my-piece-on-fat-leonard-us-navy-bribery.html
