The Admiral In Charge Of Navy intelligence Has Not Been Allowed To See Military Secrets For Years

Craig Whitlock at the Washington Post offers a piece the Navy admiral who is in charge of naval intelligence, but can't access classified information due to his possible involvement with a bribery scandal and investigation .

For more than two years, the Navy’s intelligence chief has been stuck with a major handicap: He’s not allowed to know any secrets.

Vice Adm. Ted “Twig” Branch has been barred from reading, seeing or hearing classified information since November 2013, when the Navy learned from the Justice Department that his name had surfaced in a giant corruption investigation involving a foreign defense contractor and scores of Navy personnel.

Worried that Branch was on the verge of being indicted, Navy leaders suspended his access to classified materials. They did the same to one of his deputies, Rear Adm. Bruce F. Loveless, the Navy’s director of intelligence operations.

More than 800 days later, neither Branch nor Loveless has been charged. But neither has been cleared, either. Their access to classified information remains blocked.

Although the Navy transferred Loveless to a slightly less sensitive post, it kept Branch in charge of its intelligence division. That has resulted in an awkward arrangement, akin to sending a warship into battle with its skipper stuck onshore.

Some critics have questioned how smart it is for the Navy to retain an intelligence chief with such limitations, for so long, especially at a time when the Pentagon is confronted by crises in the Middle East, the South China Sea, the Korean Peninsula and other hot spots.

“I have never heard of anything as asinine, bizarre or stupid in all my years,” Norman Polmar, a naval analyst and historian, said in an interview.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/01/27/the-admiral-in-charge-of-navy-intelligence-has-not-been-allowed-to-see-military-secrets-for-years/

U.S. Navy Petty Officer Sentenced To 27 Months In Prison For Trading Classified Information In International Fraud and Bribery Scandal

The U.S. Justice Department released the below information:

A U.S. Navy Petty Officer First Class was sentenced today to 27 months in prison for accepting cash, consumer electronics and travel expenses from foreign defense contractor Glenn Defense Marine Asia (GDMA) in exchange for classified U.S. Navy information.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy of the Southern District of California, Special Agent in Charge Chris D. Hendrickson of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service’s (DCIS) Western Field Office and Director Andrew Traver of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) made the announcement.

In May 2014, Dan Layug, 27, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and is the first defendant to be sentenced in the bribery scheme involving Singapore-based GDMA, which provided port services to U.S. Navy ships in the Asia Pacific region and used bribery to obtain information to win and maintain contracts.

According to court documents, GDMA owner and CEO Leonard Francis and other GDMA employees enlisted the clandestine assistance of Layug and other U.S. Navy personnel to provide classified ship schedules and other sensitive Navy information.  GDMA allegedly overcharged the Navy under its contracts and submitted bogus invoices for tens of millions of dollars in port services.

In his plea agreement, Layug admitted that he accepted a $1,000 per month allowance from GDMA, plus luxury hotel stays for himself and others in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Thailand.  Layug also admitted that he sought consumer electronics from GDMA, including an iPad 3.  According to the plea agreement, Layug used his position as a logistics specialist at a U.S. Navy facility in Yokosuka, Japan, to gain access to classified U.S. Navy ship schedules, then provided this information to GDMA’s vice president of global operations.  Layug admitted that he also provided pricing information from one of GDMA’s competitors.

So far, nine individuals have been charged in connection with this scheme; of those, seven have pleaded guilty.  Captain Daniel Dusek and Commander Jose Luis Sanchez were charged with bribery conspiracies involving GDMA and have pleaded guilty.  Commander Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz and former Department of Defense (DoD) civilian employee Paul Simpkins currently await trial.  On Dec. 17, 2013, NCIS Special Agent John Beliveau pleaded guilty to conspiracy and bribery charges for regularly alerting Francis to the status of the government’s investigation into GDMA.

The NCIS, the DCIS and the Defense Contract Audit Agency are conducting the ongoing investigation.  Trial Attorneys Brian Young and Lawrence Atkinson of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark W. Pletcher of the Southern District of California are prosecuting the case.

Those with information relating to fraud, corruption or waste in government contracting should contact the NCIS anonymous tip line at www.ncis.navy.mil or the DoD Hotline at www.dodig.mil/hotline, or call (800) 424-9098.

Another Former Navy Official Arrested In ‘Fat Leonard’ Bribery Case

Erik Slavin at Stars and Stripes reports on the arrest of another former U.S. Navy official in the "Fat Leonard" bribery case.

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — A Singaporean woman is the latest former U.S. Navy official to be arrested in connection with a bribery scandal that traded classified ship information to a contractor in exchange for cash, travel and other perks.

Gursharan Kaur Sharon Rachael, 55, a former Navy lead contract specialist, was charged in Singaporean court Thursday with seven counts of taking bribes worth $92,000 from Glenn Defense Marine Asia, which supplied portside services to Navy ships for decades.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.stripes.com/news/another-former-navy-official-arrested-in-fat-leonard-bribery-case-1.381675

Congress To Probe Navy Contracting Practices And Multimillion-Dollar Bribery Scheme

The Navy Times offers a piece on Congress looking into the Navy's contracting practrices and the bribery scandal.  

SAN DIEGO — The House Oversight Committee is looking into Navy contracting practices amid a widening federal probe into a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving a Singapore-based defense contractor accused of offering prostitution services and pricey vacations to Navy officers.

Rep. Darrell Issa’s office said Friday that Navy Secretary Ray Mabus is expected next week to brief the committee, which the California Republican chairs.

In a Jan. 28 letter sent to Mabus, Issa asked for copies of contracts between the Navy and defense contractor Leonard Glenn Francis, since 2009. He also requested the Navy’s total expenditures on port services — food, fuel, etc. — for the last five fiscal years.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.navytimes.com/article/20140131/NEWS05/301310020/Congress-looks-Navy-contracting-practices

You can also read an earlier post on the Navy's bribery scandal via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/11/us-navy-suspends-contractors-with.html

U.S. Navy Suspends Contracts With Second Firm In Bribery Scandal Over Foreign Ports

Tony Perry at the Los Angeles Times offers a piece on the on-going Navy bribery investigation of  foreign ports.

In a widening scandal, the Navy cut ties Wednesday with a second international company over "questionable business integrity" involving lucrative contracts to service U.S. ships in foreign ports.

The Navy announced that it has suspended contracts with British-based Inchcape Shipping Services Ltd. and its affiliated companies. The firm has provided "ship husbanding" services to U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean.

Navy officials said that the suspension of Inchcape is not connected to the investigation into another longtime contractor in the Asia-Pacific region, Singapore-based Glenn Defense Marine Asia.

The investigation into Glenn Defense Marine Asia has led to criminal charges in San Diego against two Navy commanders, a Naval Criminal Investigative Service agent, and two Malaysian business executives.

Also, two admirals have been put on leave, a Navy captain transferred to a lesser job, and another captain relieved of command of his ship.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-navy-suspension-20131128,0,3918434.story#axzz2m4VsKRUD

You can also read an earlier posts on the Navy bribery investigation via the below links:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/11/two-top-us-naval-intelligence-officers.html

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/09/us-navy-commander-navy-contractor-and.html

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/10/hookers-part-of-alleged-navy-bribery.html

 

Two Top U.S. Naval Intelligence Officers Caught Up In The 'Fat Leonard' Navy Bribery Case

M. Alex Johnson at usnews.nbcnews.com offers a piece on the two naval intelligence admirals caught up in a bribery scandal involving a Singapore contractor known as "Fat Leonard."

Two top naval intelligence officers have been placed on leave and stripped of their access to classified materials in a widespread bribery investigation, the Navy said Friday night.

The sanctions against Vice Adm. Ted Branch, the director of naval intelligence, and Rear Adm. Bruce Loveless, the director of intelligence operations, are related to "illegal and improper relations" with Leonard Francis, chief executive of Glenn Defense Marine, a Singapore-based defense contractor, the Navy said in a statement.

The admirals are the highest-ranking officers to be implicated so far in the investigation, which began in 2010. Three lower-level officers have been charged with accepting prostitutes, luxury travel and cash from Francis in exchange for classified and internal Navy information.   

You can read the rest of the story and watch a news video clip via the below link:

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/08/21375462-top-navy-intelligence-officers-put-on-leave-in-bribery-probe?lite