26 People Charged In Alleged Bribery And Point-Shaving Scheme To Fix NCAA, CBA Men’s Basketball Games

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia released the information below on January 15th:

PHILADELPHIA – At a news conference this morning, United States Attorney David Metcalf announced charges against 26 people in connection with an alleged bribery and point-shaving scheme to fix NCAA Division I men’s basketball games and Chinese Basketball Association games.

U.S. Attorney Metcalf discussed the case alongside FBI Deputy Director Andrew Bailey and FBI Philadelphia Special Agent in Charge Wayne Jacobs.

“The stakes here are far higher than anything on a bet slip. The criminal charges we have filed allege the criminal corruption of collegiate athletics through an international conspiracy of NCAA players, alumni, and professional bettors,” said U.S. Attorney Metcalf. “It’s also yet another blow to public confidence in the integrity of sport, which rests on the fundamental principles of fairness, honesty, and respect for the rules of competition. When criminal acts threaten to corrupt such a central institution of American life, the Department of Justice won’t hesitate to step in.”

“Over the past two years, the FBI’s Philadelphia Field Office led an investigation into a point-shaving and sports-bribery conspiracy resulting in the indictments announced today,” said FBI Deputy Director Andrew Bailey. “This case reflects the FBI’s unwavering commitment to protecting the American people and the institutions they trust. I am proud of the outstanding work of the FBI teams involved in the case. To those who choose corruption and betrayal: we will find you, we will investigate you, and we will hold you accountable.”

“Today’s arrests and charges would not have been possible without the tireless efforts of our agents, analysts, and professional staff whose expertise, persistence, and commitment to justice over the past two years were the driving force behind this investigation,” said Wayne A. Jacobs, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Philadelphia. “Let this be a clear warning to professional and collegiate athletes, and to anyone who seeks to manipulate them — there is nowhere to hide — the short-term gain will never be worth the long-term loss.”

As alleged in an indictment and other filings unsealed this morning, the scheme was led by “fixers” Jalen Smith, 30, of Charlotte, North Carolina; Marves Fairley, 40, of Carson, Mississippi; Shane Hennen, 40, of Las Vegas, Nevada, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Antonio Blakeney, 29, of Kissimmee, Florida; Roderick Winkler, 31, of Little Rock, Arkansas; and Alberto Laureano, 24, of Bronx, New York.

The indictment alleges that, beginning in or about September 2022, a group of individuals, including defendants Fairley and Hennen, worked together to recruit and bribe players to help influence or “fix” Chinese Basketball Association (“CBA”) men’s basketball games through point shaving. The fixers, including Fairley and Hennen, bribed CBA players to underperform and help ensure their team failed to cover the spread in certain games and then arranged for large wagers to be placed on those games against that team.

During the 2022-2023 CBA season, the indictment further alleges, the fixers, including Fairley and Hennen, recruited defendant Blakeney, then a player on the CBA’s Jiangsu Dragons (“Jiangsu”) and one of the league’s leading scorers, for their point-shaving scheme. Blakeney agreed to participate in the scheme and then recruited other players from his team to join the scheme, working together with the fixers to influence the outcome of Jiangsu games.

In or about April 2023, at the conclusion of the CBA regular season, the indictment alleges that defendant Fairley left a package containing nearly $200,000 in cash, representing bribe payments and proceeds from the scheme, in Blakeney’s storage unit in Florida.

The indictment further alleges that, after profiting on the fixed CBA games, the fixers, including Fairley and Hennen, along with Blakeney, turned their attention to fixing NCAA men’s basketball games. The three men enlisted additional participants, including defendants Smith, Winkler, and Laureano, to help them operate this scheme and recruit NCAA players who would accept bribes to influence games.

As alleged, during the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 NCAA men’s basketball seasons, the fixers, including defendants Smith, Fairley, Hennen, Winkler, Laureano, and Blakeney agreed to recruit NCAA players who would help ensure that their team failed to cover the spread of the first half of a game or an entire game. The fixers would then place wagers on those games, betting against the team whose player or players they had bribed to engage in this point-shaving scheme.

Defendants Smith, Fairley, Hennen, Winkler, Laureano, and Blakeney approached and communicated with NCAA basketball players, in person and through social media, text message communications, and cellular telephone calls, the indictment alleges, with the fixers offering the players bribe payments, usually ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 per game, to participate in the scheme.

The indictment alleges that the fixers specifically targeted college players for whom the bribe payments would meaningfully supplement, or exceed, the student-athletes’ legitimate opportunities for “Name-Image-Likeness” compensation. The fixers also generally targeted for their scheme players on teams that were underdogs in games and sought to have them fail to cover the spreads in those games. Many of these players accepted the offers and agreed to help fix specific games so that the fixers would win their wagers.

The indictment alleges that the defendant fixers engaged in a point-shaving scheme involving, in total, more than 39 players on more than 17 different NCAA Division I men’s basketball teams who then fixed and attempted to fix more than 29 NCAA games. To capitalize on this scheme, the fixers made wagers totaling millions of dollars, generating substantial proceeds for the fixers and the players who collectively received hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribe payments for fixing their teams’ basketball games. When the fixers were successful with their wagers on fixed games, the indictment further alleges, defendant Smith and other co-schemers traveled to NCAA campuses and made cash bribe payments to the players who had agreed to participate in the point-shaving scheme.

A list of all defendants and the charges against them is linked below.

If convicted on a bribery in sporting contests charge, the maximum possible sentence a defendant would face is five years of imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine. Each count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud brings a maximum possible sentence of 20 years of imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine, if convicted.

This case was investigated by FBI Philadelphia and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Louis D. Lappen and Jerome M. Maiatico.

Anyone who believes they may have information about these crimes and would like to report the information is asked to call FBI Philadelphia at 215-418-4000 and reference “NCAA point-shaving.”

Mr. Metcalf also thanked the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the FBI’s New York Field Office for their valuable assistance with the investigation.

The charges and allegations contained in the charging documents are merely accusations. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty in court. 

Retired U.S. Navy Admiral Found Guilty In Bribery Scheme

The U.S. Justice Department released the information below on May 19^th:

WASHINGTON – Admiral Robert Burke (USN-Ret.), 62, of Coconut Creek, Florida, was found guilty of bribery today in connection with accepting future employment at a government vendor in exchange for awarding that company a government contract. 

Following a five-day trial, a federal jury found Burke guilty of conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, performing acts affecting a personal financial interest, and concealing material facts from the United States. U.S. District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden scheduled sentencing for August 22, 2025.

The verdict was announced by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro, Matthew R. Galeotti Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Special Agent in Charge Greg Gross of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) Economic Crimes Field Office, Assistant Director in Charge Steven J. Jensen of the FBI Washington Field Office, and Special Agent in Charge Stanley Newell of the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General’s (DoD OIG) Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) Transnational Field Office. 

“When you abuse your position and betray the public trust to line your own pockets, it undermines the confidence in the government you represent,” said U.S. Attorney Pirro. “Our office, with our law enforcement partners, will root out corruption – be it bribes or illegal contracts – and hold accountable the perpetrators, no matter what title or rank they hold.”

According to court documents and as the evidence proved at trial, from 2020 to 2022, Burke was a four-star Admiral who oversaw U.S. naval operations in Europe, Russia, and most of Africa, and commanded thousands of civilian and military personnel. The two co-defendants Kim and Messenger were the co-CEOs of a company (Company A) and provided a workforce training pilot program to a small component of the Navy from August 2018 through July 2019. The Navy terminated a contract with Company A in late 2019 and directed Company A not to contact Burke. 

Despite the Navy’s instructions, the co-defendants met with Burke in Washington, D.C., in July 2021, to reestablish Company A’s business relationship with the Navy. At the meeting, the charged defendants agreed that Burke would use his position as a Navy Admiral to steer a contract to Company A in exchange for future employment at the company. They further agreed that Burke would use his official position to influence other Navy officers to award another contract to Company A to train a large portion of the Navy with a value one of the co-defendants allegedly estimated to be “triple digit millions.” 

In December 2021, Burke ordered his staff to award a $355,000 contract to Company A to train personnel under Burke’s command in Italy and Spain. Company A performed the training in January 2022. Thereafter, Burke promoted Company A in a failed effort to convince another senior Navy Admiral to award another contract to Company A. To conceal the scheme, Burke made several false and misleading statements to the Navy, including by falsely implying that Company A’s employment discussions with Burke only began months after the contract was awarded and omitting the truth on his required government ethics disclosure forms. 

In October 2022, Burke began working at Company A at a yearly starting salary of $500,000 and a grant of 100,000 stock options. 

This case was investigated by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and the FBI’s Washington Field Office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca G. Ross for the District of Columbia and Trial Attorneys Trevor Wilmot and Kathryn E. Fifield of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section. It was investigated and indicted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Rothstein.

IRS: Defense Contractor President Pleads Guilty To Bribery Scheme Involving $16 Million In Small Business Government Contracts

 The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released the information below:

SAN DIEGO — Philip Flores, the owner, president and chief executive of Intellipeak Solutions, Inc., a former defense contractor based out of Fredericksburg, Virginia, pleaded guilty in federal court today, admitting that he participated in a bribery scheme with former Naval Information Warfare Center employee James Soriano.

According to his plea agreement, Flores gave various things of value to Soriano, including expensive meals at restaurants in San Diego and Washington D.C., field level tickets and parking passes to Game 5 of the 2018 MLB World Series in Los Angeles, and tickets to the 2019 NFL Super Bowl in Atlanta, Georgia. The cost of tickets to these premier sporting events totaled over $18,000.

In return, Soriano used his position as a contracting officer’s representative at the Naval Information Warfare Center to ensure that Intellipeak was awarded numerous no-bid government contracts through the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) program. Soriano secured the contracts by falsifying technical evaluations, providing high ratings to Intellipeak to do the contracted work, and approving Intellipeak’s invoices on the awarded contracts, despite knowing that Intellipeak was not doing the work but instead subcontracting out all or most of the work to non-8(a) companies in violation of the SBA 8(a) rules.

Soriano also exploited competitive contracting through the SBA 8(a) program to benefit Intellipeak over other contractors. For example, Soriano secretly allowed Flores to draft contract discriminators to ensure that Intellipeak was selected as a winning bidder on a competitive contract. Soriano also allowed Flores to secretly draft procurement documents for an $86 million competitive contract and then performed multiple steps to attempt to award the contract to Intellipeak even though its bid was $6 million higher than another contractor.

According to his plea agreement, Flores also exploited Intellipeak’s 8(a) small business status by marketing Intellipeak to other defense contractors, who were not part of the 8(a) program, as a way for those companies to get access to 8(a) sole source contracts, generally in exchange for “pass through” fee that was equal to 6 to 8 percent of the contract value. Flores charged his 6 to 8 percent fee to the government, which Soriano approved, even though both knew that Intellipeak was not doing the work on the contracts and the fee did not reflect performed work.

According to Flores’s plea agreement, as a result of the conspiracy, the government paid Intellipeak more than $16 million to perform work on approximately 26 government contracts and task orders. The profit Intellipeak made from these contracts and task orders was conservatively estimated to be between $550,000 and $1.5 million. Further, as part of his plea agreement, Flores has agreed to pay restitution to three small businesses that were foreseeable victims of the bribery scheme.

Flores is scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge Todd W. Robinson for sentencing on June 13, 2025.

“Those who undermine the integrity of the government procurement process will be held accountable,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Andrew Haden. “As this guilty plea demonstrates, we will continue to prosecute those individuals who put their own personal gain ahead of the system that supports our nation’s warfighters and at the expense of American taxpayers.”

“Mr. Flores intentionally undermined the DoD contracting process,” said Special Agent in Charge Tyler Hatcher, IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Los Angeles Field Office. “The DoD contracting process ensures our warfighters get the best equipment available and that American tax dollars are spent in a responsible manner. IRS-CI is committed to deterring and preventing this sort of fraud, in partnership with fellow law enforcement organizations, to ensure our servicemembers are properly equipped to fight and win in an increasingly complex battlespace.”

“Mr. Flores’s plea agreement is a positive step toward accountability for his role in this illicit scheme,” said John E. Helsing, Acting Special Agent in Charge for the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Western Field Office. “Mr. Flores sought to enrich himself and his company at the expense of the American taxpayers. DCIS remains committed to working jointly with the United States Attorney’s Office and our law enforcement partners to investigate and deter public corruption within the Department of Defense.”

“Mr. Flores’s participation in an illicit scheme to bribe a public official in exchange for unlawful enrichment in contract awards undermines the Department of the Navy’s commitment to a fair and unbiased procurement process,” said Special Agent in Charge Greg Gross of the NCIS Economic Crimes Field Office. “NCIS and our investigative partners remain committed to ensuring the continued integrity of the Department of the Navy’s acquisitions process.”

“Those who engage in bribery schemes to gain access to preferential small business contracts will be aggressively investigated,” said SBA OIG’s Assistant Inspector General for Investigations Shafee Carnegie. “Our office will relentlessly pursue fraudsters who seek to exploit SBA’s vital economic programs for small businesses. I want to thank the U.S. Attorney’s Office and our law enforcement partners for their dedication and commitment to seeing justice served.”

Soriano was charged as a co-defendant and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery in 23-cr-2282-TWR. Soriano was also separately charged and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery and fraud and false statement in filing a tax return in 24-cr-0341-TWR. Soriano is next scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge Todd W. Robinson for sentencing on May 9, 2025.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Patrick C. Swan, Katherine E.A. McGrath, and Carling E. Donovan.

If you have information regarding fraud, waste, or abuse relating to Department of Defense personnel or operations, please contact the DoD Hotline at 800-424-9098.

IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.

Fat Leonard Case: Leonard Glenn Francis Sentenced To 15 Years In Prison For Massive Bribery, Fraud And Disappearance

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

SAN DIEGO – Leonard Glenn Francis (seen in the above photo), mastermind of an unprecedented bribery and fraud scheme targeting the U.S. Navy, was sentenced in federal court today to 180 months in prison and ordered to pay $20 million in restitution to the Navy and a $150,000 fine. Francis was also ordered to forfeit $35 million in ill-gotten proceeds from his crimes.

Francis’ sentence reflects admissions in his first guilty plea in 2015 concerning bribery and fraud, his extensive cooperation with the government, and his guilty plea today for failing to appear for his original sentencing hearing in 2022. U.S. District Judge Janis L. Sammartino handed down a 164-month sentence for bribery and fraud and 16 months for failing to appear, to be served consecutively.

Francis admitted today in his second plea agreement that he fled the country to avoid his sentencing hearing in September 2022. Around September 4, 2022, while he was on house arrest, Francis cut off a GPS monitor he was required to wear and disappeared, first fleeing to Mexico, then Cuba, and ultimately, Venezuela. He was later arrested in Venezuela and brought back to the U.S. on December 20, 2023.

Francis, 60, a Malaysian citizen most recently living in Singapore, was initially arrested in San Diego on September 16, 2013, and remained in pretrial custody until December 18, 2017, when the court granted his request for release pending sentencing due to a medical condition. Francis served four years and three months in custody before he was released on bond and ordered into house arrest. He remained on bond under the supervision of U.S. Pretrial Services for almost five years, from December 17, 2017, until he fled the U.S. on September 4, 2022. He has remained in custody in the U.S. since his return on December 20, 2023. Based on today’s sentence and the court’s finding that Francis has so far served 2,333 days of his sentence - including time spent in custody in Venezuela at the request of the U.S. government - Francis has an estimated 8.5 years remaining.

According to admissions in his initial 2015 plea agreement, and other court documents, Francis and his company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, or GDMA, which provided services to U.S. Navy ships in Asia Pacific ports, gave co-conspirators millions of dollars in things of value, including over $500,000 in cash; hundreds of thousands of dollars in the services of prostitutes and associated expenses; hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel expenses, including airfare, often first or business class, luxurious hotel stays, incidentals, and spa treatments; hundreds of thousands of dollars in lavish meals, top-shelf alcohol and wine, and entertainment; and hundreds of thousands of dollars in luxury gifts, including designer handbags and leather goods, watches, fountain pens, Kobe beef, Spanish suckling pigs, designer furniture, Cuban cigars, consumer electronics, ornamental swords, and hand-made ship models.

Francis admitted that in return, U.S. Navy personnel and command staff advocated on behalf of Francis and his company during the procurement process and provided classified information about various U.S. Navy ships’ port visits, proprietary U.S. Navy information such as details about competitors’ bids for U.S. Navy contracts, and information about Naval Criminal Investigative Service and U.S. Navy investigations into GDMA’s practices, among other things.

In his 2015 plea agreement, Francis also admitted to defrauding the U.S. Navy of tens of millions of dollars by routinely overbilling for goods and services provided, including fuel, tugboats, and sewage disposal.

GDMA the corporation was also sentenced today to five years of probation and ordered to pay a $36 million fine.

According to the government’s sentencing memo, Francis’ scheme to defraud the United States over many years and the entrenched bribery and corruption he fostered within the U.S. Navy were aggravated and egregious. By contrast, once caught, he pleaded guilty, and cooperated extensively with authorities.

Over the course of several years, Francis met with government investigators dozens of times to discuss unprecedented levels of corruption within the U.S. Navy. Francis provided detailed information about hundreds of Sailors, from petty officers to admirals, and turned over financial records, photographs, receipts and Navy contracting documents. Corroborated information from Francis substantially assisted the United States in its investigation.

“Mr. Francis’ sentencing brings closure to an expansive fraud scheme that he perpetrated against the U.S. Navy with assistance from various Navy officials. This fraud conspiracy ultimately cost the American taxpayer millions of dollars and weakened the public’s trust in some of our Navy’s senior leaders. Mr. Francis’ actions not only degraded the 7th Fleet’s readiness but shook the Fleet’s trust in its leadership who furthered his corrupt practices,” said Kelly P. Mayo, the Director of the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS). “The exhaustive joint investigation exemplifies the lengths DCIS and its investigative partners will go to in order to pursue justice for the American taxpayer and our warfighters.  DCIS will continue to protect our nation’s precious resources so they are not lost to illicit schemes that only serve one’s greed and self-aggrandizement to the detriment of our national security.”

“Leonard Francis put the safety of our warfighters and Department of Navy assets at risk,” said NCIS Director Omar Lopez. “He disregarded the law and lined his pockets by bribing U.S. Navy officials and others to exploit sensitive national security information. NCIS remains committed to protecting Department of the Navy personnel and resources. As we reach the final sentencing in this complex and intensive procurement fraud investigation that spanned over a decade, I want to thank the countless NCIS professionals and partner agencies involved.”

Note: You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine Q&A with Craig Whitlock, the author of Fat Leonard: How One Man Bribed, Bilked, and Seduced the U.S. Navy, via the below link:

Paul Davis On Crime: My Counterterrorism Magazine Q&A With Craig Whitlock, The Author Of “Fat Leonard: How One Man Bribed, Bilked and Seduced the U.S. Navy” 

My Counterterrorism Magazine Q&A With Craig Whitlock, The Author Of “Fat Leonard: How One Man Bribed, Bilked and Seduced the U.S. Navy”

Counterterrorism magazine published my Q&A with Craig Whitlock (seen in the below photo). 

The Washington Post investigative reporter has covered the “Fat Leonard” U.S. Navy bribery scandal since the beginning and he has published a fine book about the sensational crime story.  

You can read the Q&A via the below pages or the below text:

Craig Whitlock is an investigative reporter for the Washington Post who specializes in national security issues. He has covered the Pentagon, served as the Berlin bureau chief and reported from more than 60 countries. He joined The Washington Post in 1998. 

Craig Whitlock is the author of “The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War.” He has also written “Fat Leonard: How One Man Bribed, Bilked, and Seduced the U.S. Navy,” which covers the massive bribery and contractor fraud case that involved many senior Navy officers across the world. 

Offering fine cigars, extravagant dinners, expensive gifts and even prostitutes, Leonard Francis, the owner and operator of the Glenn Marine Group in Southeast Asia, bribed Navy officers and other officials into providing him classified information that helped him enrich his contracting business. Suspicion of Leonard’s padded invoices led to an investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS), which in turn led to the arrest of numerous Navy officers for bribery.    

Craig Whitlock was interviewed by Paul Davis. 

IACSP: Your book on the Fat Leonard bribery and procurement fraud case interested me as I’m a Navy veteran having served as a teenage sailor on an aircraft carrier during the Vietnam War. And prior to becoming a full-time writer, I did security work as a Defense Department civilian employee. I worked on a good number of contractor fraud cases, but nothing as big as the Fat Leonard case. 

How did you begin reporting on the Fat Leonard story? 

Whitlock: I was a Pentagon beat reporter for the Washington Post in 2013 and one day I saw there was an Associated Press report from San Deigo about the arrest of a Navy contractor from Malaysia on bribery charges. At the same time, the U.S. Justice Department in San Deigo announced that they had also arrested a U.S. Navy officer for taking bribes, and the one that really caught my eye was the arrest of an NCIS civilian special agent. It was unusual for a Navy officer - this was a commander, an 0-5 - and an NCIS special agent taking bribes from a foreign national contractor to the Navy. I was wandering the corridors of the Pentagon and I bumped into a Navy officer I knew and I mentioned this case and asked him if he had heard of this guy Leonard Francis who was the contractor, and this Navy officer just laughed and said, “Oh, you mean Fat Leonard.” I said is that what they call him because I didn’t know he was so big at that point. The guy said everybody in the Navy knows Fat Leonard. And so, I’m a reporter and I like to tell stories, and certainly this caught my eye for a potentially really good story. I wrote a page one story for the Washington Post in the fall of 2013 about this unusual bribery case and how the guy at the center of it was a Malaysian defense contractor nicknamed Fat Leonard. At that point not much had been made public but every month there was some new bombshell that came out of my reporting or there were additional people who came under investigation, including the Director of Naval Intelligence, so it became clear that the more you kept pulling the string, the bigger and bigger it got. I kept going for the next ten years.               

IACSP: Did your Washington Post editors encourage you to pursue the story?

Whitlock: They did. The Washington Post is really good about that. One of our core missions is doing accountability reporting of public officials and so if there are allegations of corruption, particularly involving senior naval officers and the NCIS, that is not a hard story to sell to your editors. I was able to keep delivering a lot of stories about it. I wrote probably about 60 or 70 articles for the Washington Post over several years and to this day my editors are still very hungry for Fat Leonard stories. It is such an unusual case, and the scope is so big, and the fact that the Navy by and large has tried to cover it up, it makes all the more important to get to the bottom of it.       

IACSP: What sources did you have for the story?

Whitlock: I had a lot of sources. I had documented sources, meaning court records, and I filed a lot of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Requests with the Navy, dozens and dozens of them. I’m a big document hound when it comes to reporting, because there is no greater source than getting documents. I also developed human sources both inside and outside of the Navy, many of whom were on the record, because as the Navy officer at the Pentagon told me, everyone in the Navy heard of Fat Leonard, so people had stories to tell about him. People in the Navy were less willing to comment on the ongoing investigation, because there were so many high-ranking officials involved, but over time, I was able to piece things together with a combination of human sources, court records and documents I obtained under FOIA.  

    

IACSP: How would you describe Leonard Francis?

Whitlock: Fat Leonard is one of the world’s most accomplished con men. He is really a criminal mastermind. He is charismatic. He loves to tell stories. He loves to charm people. Part of the secret to his success as a criminal is people underestimate him. One reason they underestimate him is because he was such a big guy. They didn’t take him as a threat. He weighed anywhere from 350 to 500 pounds, and he was this enormous guy. He doesn’t look like somebody who is trying to penetrate Naval Intelligence. He loved to party and throw dinners and give people gifts, and he was kind of a “Good Time Charlie,” so a lot of people in the Navy really underestimated the threat that he posed to the Defense Department. He knew how to take advantage of that, and he was a very quick study of human behavior and psychology. He was a really smart guy even though he was a high school drop out in Malaysia. He’s a brilliant guy and he really knows how to study people and search out their weaknesses and their vices. Over time, he was gradually able to reel in hundreds of people in the Navy who took his gifts and bribes. There is no other case like it that I’ve been able to uncover.                

IACSP: What specific crimes did he commit and how did those crimes affect national security?

Whitlock: He pleaded guilty to bribery and fraud charges in federal court. The crux of the case is that he was bribing navy officers and other personnel, such as the NCIS special agent, to give him information that would enable him to gouge the Navy for his company’s services. You’re a Navy veteran, so you’re familiar with husbanding contractors who resupply ships whenever they appeared in port. Over time, he got contracts worth more than 250 million dollars. He built himself up to become the dominant Navy contractor in Southeast Asia. He was essentially buying people off to look the other way so he could overcharge the Navy systematically for hundreds of port visits a year. How he damaged national security, besides defrauding the government, is that he also persuaded 12 Navy officers to leak him classified material over the period of seven years. This was not top-secret material. Most of the time it had to do with the planned schedules of Navy ships and what ports they were going to up to a year in advance.

IACSP: The Navy calls it “Ship’s Movement” information, and it is classified.

Whitlock: He also got one officer to leak him ballistic missile information that was highly classified. So that was the real damage that he did to the Navy. He penetrated the counterintelligence defenses for years on end. To this day, the Navy has never really done a public assessment of the damage he caused in that regard.    

IACSP: Why do you think so many high-ranking Navy officers, admirals, captains and commanders, fell for his bribery?

Whitlock: That’s a great question and it is really at the heart of my book. There were 90 admirals, active duty and retired, who came under investigation or were questioned about their dealings with Leonard Francis. It is a pretty striking number. Leonard was omnipresent out in Asia, so they would all run into him. Leonard was clever. He understood the importance of rank in the military. So if he could get one admiral to take his gifts, the rest of the officer’s wardroom would take their cues from that. If they saw the admiral at one of Leonard’s extravagant dinners that cost a thousand dollars a plate, everybody else would see that it was OK to deal with Leonard and it was OK to take his gifts. Over the years he had lured so many admirals to his dinners or even his sex parties, that it became accepted behavior, even though senior officers knew that this violated every ethics law in the book. It was sort of a “wink-wink, nod-nod” kind of behavior. Leonard had gotten so many to be his friends and take his gifts, people were afraid to blow the whistle. Who is going to blow the whistle on an aircraft carrier strike force commander or the commanding officer of a ship? People knew their careers were at stake. Even other admirals were reluctant to blow the whistle on their peers. No one wanted to bring the house down.                 

IACSP: How would you describe the typical officer that Leonard Francis was able to bribe with a cigar, a good meal and a bottle of champagne?

Whitlock: Leonard would start out slow and small. The gift limit for taking gifts from contractors was 20 bucks, but Leonard would note who would take a cigar from him or just a drink from the bar.

IACSP: Not just any cigar. He offered a Cohiba, a really fine cigar.

Whitlock: He would not start out flashing envelops of cash. He would see who would take a little gift. Then he would take them out for a nice meal, or a whole bunch of cigars, or put them up in a five-star hotel, or send a gift to their wife. A lot of officers would say no. Leonard had a reputation for doing this. He wanted to see who would be willing to take his gifts as this was in Asia, half-way around the world from Navy headquarters. He wanted to see who would look the other way and let their ethics slide. Slowly, he would reel them in. There were officers he knew who wanted nothing to do with him and he would keep his distance from those officers. He would gather background information on incoming commanding officers. He had all these moles on his payroll in the Navy who would feed him inside information, and he would study who would be a good person to recruit. By and large the people he was able to bribe were those who had a sense of entitlement. They had served in the Navy for many years and made sacrifices and felt what was the harm if Leonard wanted to take them to dinner. But what they didn’t foresee was that Leonard had them over a barrel. He knew that the officers had broken ethics rules and the law. Sometimes even when officers wanted to get out of their relationships with Leonard, he wouldn’t let them. He became very demanding because he could blackmail them if necessary and he knew he had that power. People fell into that trap.             

IACSP: How was Leanard Francis arrested in a sting operation and captured by U.S. agents in the U.S?

Whitlock: The Navy and the Justice Department were actually considering a sort of counterterrorism-type operation to apprehend him. They were concerned if they caught him in Maylasia, they would not be able to extradite him. Originally, they contemplated luring him on a U.S. Navy ship in Asia and sticking him in the brig and bringing him back to the U.S. but thought it would be too complicated. So they set up a sting where they invited him to a change of command ceremony for some admirals in San Deigo. Leonard loved to rub elbows with admirals above all else, so they thought they could get him to come to San Deigo and then they could arrest him. That’s what happened even though Leonard knew he was under criminal investigation by NCIS. He was thought his moles would protect him. It did not dawn on him that he would be arrested.        

IACSP: How was he able to later escape and end up in Venezuela? How did the U.S. get him back?

Whitlock: I said Leonard Francis was one of the greatest con men in history. Here is this guy that they had to set up this international sting operation to lure him to the United States, but in a nutshell, he conned the Justice Department and conned the federal judge into thinking he was dying of cancer. He did have kidney cancer, and he was pretty sick, but as he was cooperating as a state witness at that point, he persuaded the Justice Department to let him out of jail so he could get special treatment with his own doctors in San Deigo. They put one of those ankle bracelets on him, but he was dictating his own conditions. He was a risk to flee, and one day he did. He just snipped off his ankle bracelet, called an uber and went to the border and crossed over into Tijuana, Mexico. A couple of days later he flies to Cuba and then ends up in Venezuela for the better part of a year. The Venezuelans put him under arrest in their custody as they saw him as a bargaining chip with the Americans. In the end the Biden Administration negotiated a prisoner swap that brought him back to the United States in December of 2023. He is now back in jail in San Deigo.         

IACSP: What did the prosecution do wrong, which enabled many of the cases to be overturned?

Whitlock: There was an enormous prosecution. The Justice Department filed charges against 35 individuals, so this was a pretty big fraud and bribery case. Just about all of them pleaded guilty, but there were five holdouts who insisted on going to trial as they said they were not guilty. During the trials the juries found four of them guilty of taking bribes from Francis and one was found deadlocked on. Later, the Justice Department dropped charges against an admiral whom the jury was deadlocked on. But then it emerged that the prosecutors had effectively cheated by withholding some evidence from the defense. This led to a slow unraveling of the case and so these four who were found guilty at trial of several felonies were able to get much more palpable plea deals where they pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor and didn’t have to serve any jail time. Because they were off the hook, all of these defendants who had already pleaded guilty said they wanted the same kind of deal. Some cases are still under review, including Leanord’s. The Justice Department really made a hash of the whole thing. They could have had three dozen individuals convicted in this case. Instead, they ended up with egg on their face.          

IACSP: When will Leonard Francis’ case be finalized?

Whitlock: Leonard is in jail in San Deigo and his sentencing hearing is scheduled for Election Day, November 5^th. Because of this taint to the overall prosecution, I think Leonard is hoping they will have to let him out of jail. His argument is he was arrested in 2013, so he served a few years behind bars, he served several years in home detention, and he served time in Venezuela, so his argument is I served more time than anybody else so they should let me go. We will see what the judge says.   

IACSP: What a fascinating story. Any calls from Hollywood?

Whitlock: Yeah, lots. It is one of those stories where truth is stranger than fiction and the truth is pretty unbelievable, so I think it will make a great series. There is also a documentary I’m working on. It is an unbelievable story of greed and corruption. 

IACSP: Thanks for speaking to us. 

U.S. Navy Service Member Pleads Guilty To Transmitting Sensitive U.S. Military Information To Chinese Intelligence Officer

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

A U.S. Navy service member pleaded guilty today to federal felony offenses and admitted he transmitted sensitive U.S. military information to an intelligence officer from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in exchange for bribery payments.

Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao (seen in the above U.S. Navy photo), 26, aka Thomas Zhao, of Monterey Park, California, pleaded guilty to conspiring with the intelligence officer and receiving a bribe.

Zhao, who worked at Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme and held a U.S. security clearance, admitted he engaged in a corrupt scheme to collect and transmit sensitive U.S. military information to the intelligence officer in violation of his official duties.

“The intelligence services of the People’s Republic of China actively target clearance holders across the military, seeking to entice them with money to provide sensitive government information,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew G. Olsen. “When contacted by his co-conspirator, rather than reporting it to the Navy, the defendant chose greed over protecting the national security of the United States. He is now being held accountable for his crimes. To others tempted to put personal profit ahead of patriotic duty, know that we are committed to identifying you and bringing you to justice.”

“Protecting our country’s national security is of the utmost importance,” said Executive Assistant Director Larissa L. Knapp of the FBI’s National Security Branch. “Zhao’s guilty plea is an acknowledgement of the betrayal in selling sensitive military information to the Government of China. The FBI reminds all government officials to remain vigilant in reporting potential recruitment efforts by foreign actors, and we remain committed to standing with our partners to protect the U.S. from threats to our national security.”

Between August 2021 and at least May 2023, Zhao admitted receiving at least $14,866 in at least 14 separate bribes from the intelligence officer. In exchange for the illicit payments, Zhao surreptitiously collected and transmitted to the intelligence officer sensitive, non-public information regarding U.S. Navy operational security, military trainings and exercises and critical infrastructure. Zhao admitted he entered restricted military and naval installations to collect and record this information.

Zhao specifically admitted to transmitting plans for a large-scale maritime training exercise in the Pacific theatre, operational orders, and electrical diagrams and blueprints for a Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar system located in Okinawa, Japan.

Zhao further admitted to using sophisticated encrypted communication methods to transmit the information, destroying evidence and concealing his relationship with the intelligence officer. Zhao’s conduct violated his official duties to protect such information and the oath he swore to protect the United States.

“Officer Zhao betrayed his country and the men and women of the U.S. Navy by accepting bribes from a foreign adversary,” said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada for the Central District of California. “While he and the PRC officer he served took great pains to conceal their corrupt scheme, investigators were vigilant in uncovering this shameful plot. Today’s resolution, requiring Zhao to plead guilty to all charges against him, shows that we will act swiftly and decisively to protect our nation from those who seek to undermine our security.”

“The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) would like to once again thank our partners at the FBI and Department of Justice for their continued assistance in bringing this case to a quick resolution,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Angel Cruz of the NCIS Office of Special Projects. “The swift action by the Department of Justice in prosecuting this case should serve as a warning to anyone who attempts to compromise the Department of the Navy’s sensitive information or the security of our warfighters. If you or someone you know has knowledge of a potential compromise of sensitive military information, please contact your nearest NCIS or FBI office.”

Zhao pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 8, 2024. As a result of today’s guilty plea, Zhao faces a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in prison – five years for the conspiracy count and 15 years for the bribery charge. Zhao has been in custody since his arrest on Aug. 3.

The FBI Los Angeles Field Office’s Counterintelligence and Cyber Division and NCIS conducted the investigation. IRS-Criminal Investigation provided substantial assistance.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Annamartine Salick, Sarah Gerdes, Christine Ro and Kathrynne Seiden for the Central District of California and Trial Attorney Adam Barry of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case, with assistance from Ryan Waters of the Asset Forfeiture Section.

 

Former Government Contractor Sentenced For Role In Bribery And Kickback Scheme

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

A former government contractor was sentenced today for his role in a bribery and kickback scheme where he paid bribes to secure U.S. Army contracts. 

David P. Burns, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Kenji M. Price, U.S. Attorney of the District of Hawaii; Ray Park, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command’s (Army-CID) Pacific Fraud Field Office; Bryan Denny, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS); and Eli “Sam” Miranda, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Honolulu Field Office made the announcement. 

John Winslett, 66, of Bristol, Rhode Island, was sentenced to 70 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release before Chief Judge J. Michael Seabright in the District of Hawaii. 

According to court documents and information presented in court, Winslett admitted that from 2011 to 2018, he paid over $100,000 worth of bribes to two U.S. Army contracting officials who worked at the Range at Schofield Barracks, in order to steer federal contracts worth at least $19 million to his employer, a government contractor. The bribes included cash, automobiles, and firearms. In return, the contracting officials used their positions to benefit Winslett’s employer in securing U.S. Army contracts. 

Winslett further admitted that he accepted $723,333.33 in kickbacks from a local subcontractor in exchange for Winslett assigning those contracts to that local subcontractor.

Army-CID, DCIS and the FBI investigated this case. 

Trial Attorney Laura Connelly and Principal Assistant Chief Justin Weitz of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Wallenstein of the District of Hawaii are prosecuting the case.  

Former South Philly Democratic Congressman Michael 'Ozzie' Myers Charged With Ballot Stuffing, Bribery, And Obstruction

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

A former U.S. Congressman was charged Tuesday in an indictment unsealed today, with conspiring to violate voting rights by fraudulently stuffing the ballot boxes for specific candidates in the 2014, 2015, and 2016 primary elections, bribery of an election official, falsification of records, voting more than once in federal elections, and obstruction of justice.

Michael “Ozzie” Myers, 77, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is charged with conspiring with and bribing the former Judge of Elections for the 39^th Ward, 36^th Division, Domenick J. Demuro.  

Demuro, who pleaded guilty previously in federal court in Philadelphia, was responsible for overseeing the entire election process and all voter activities of his division in accord with federal and state election laws.

“Free and fair elections are the hallmark of our system of government,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.  “The Department of Justice has zero tolerance for corruption of the electoral process, and we will spare no effort in investigating and prosecuting those who would seek an unfair advantage at the polls by bribing state and local officials responsible for ensuring the fairness of our elections.”

“Voting is the cornerstone of our democracy.  If only one vote has been illegally rung up or fraudulently stuffed into a ballot box, the integrity of that entire election is undermined,” said U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.  “Votes are not things to be purchased and democracy is not for sale.  If you are a political consultant, election official, or work with the polling places in any way, I urge you to do your job honestly and faithfully.  That is what the public deserves, it is what democracy demands, and it is what my office will enforce.”

“Transparent and fair elections are integral to the proper functioning of our democracy,” said Special Agent in Charge Michael J. Driscoll of the FBI’s Philadelphia Division.  “Those who seek to corrupt the vote threaten the public’s trust in the process and must be brought to justice. The FBI is determined to protect the integrity of our electoral system.”

“These charges, announced today by the Justice Department, clearly illustrate allegations of absolute disregard for the sanctity of our electoral system,” said Captain Leo D. Hannon Jr., Director of the Special Investigations Division of the Pennsylvania State Police.  “As disheartening as this conduct may be for the voting public in Philadelphia and elsewhere, the citizens we serve should be reassured by the fearless and tireless work of the attorneys, agents, and troopers tasked with the continuation of this active investigation.  Particularly in the current atmosphere of impending elections, the Pennsylvania State Police prioritize investigations into allegations of voter fraud and public corruption.”

Myers is charged with bribing Demuro to illegally add votes for certain candidates of their mutual party in primary elections. Some ofthese candidates were individuals running for judicial office whose campaigns had hired Myers, andothers were candidates for various federal, state, and local elective offices whom Myers favored for a variety of reasons.  According to the indictment, Myers would solicit payments from his clients in the form of cash or checks as “consulting fees,” and then use portions of these funds to pay Demuro and others in return for tampering with election results.

After receiving payments ranging from between $300 to $5,000 per election from the consultant, the court papers allege Demuro would add fraudulent votes on the voting machine – also known as “ringing up” votes – for Myers’ clients and preferred candidates, thereby diluting the value of ballots cast by actual voters.

At Myers’ direction, Demuro would add these fraudulent votes to the totals during Election Day, and then would later falsely certify that the voting machine results were accurate.  Myers is also accused of directing Demuro to lie about the circumstances of the bribes and the ballot-stuffing scheme to investigators.

This case is being investigated by the FBI with assistance from the Pennsylvania State Police.  It is being prosecuted by Richard C. Pilger, Director of the Elections Crimes Branch of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric L. Gibson.

An indictment is an accusation.  A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain Announces Charges And Guilty Plea Of Former Philadelphia Judge Of Elections Who Committed Election Fraud

The U.S. Attorney's Office Eastern District of PA released the below:

PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney William M. McSwain announced today that Domenick J. DeMuro, 73, of Philadelphia, PA, a former Judge of Elections for the 39th Ward, 36th Division in South Philadelphia, has been charged and has pled guilty to a two-count Information charging (1) conspiracy to deprive Philadelphia voters of their civil rights by fraudulently stuffing the ballot boxes for specific Democratic candidates in the 2014, 2015, and 2016 primary elections, and (2) a violation of the Travel Act, which forbids the use of any facility in interstate commerce (here, a cell phone) with the intent to promote certain illegal activity (here, bribery). U.S. Attorney McSwain’s video statement providing additional details about this case is available on the Office website here: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edpa/video/united-states-attorney-william-m-mcswain-announces-guilty-plea-former-philadelphia.

The Judge of Elections is an elective office and a paid position. In that role, DeMuro was responsible for overseeing the entire election process and voter activities of his Division. The Judge of Elections is charged with overseeing the Division’s polling place in accordance with federal and state election laws and is required to attend Election Board Training conducted by the Philadelphia City Commissioners.

The voting machines at each polling station, including DeMuro’s station, generate records in the form of a printed receipt documenting the use of each voting machine. The printed receipt, also known as the “results receipt,” shows the vote totals, and the Judge of Elections and other Election Board Officials at each polling place attest to the accuracy of machine results.

During his guilty plea hearing, DeMuro admitted that an unnamed political consultant gave DeMuro directions and paid him money to illegally add votes for certain Democratic candidates. These candidates were individuals running for judicial office whose campaigns had hired the consultant, as well as other candidates for various federal, state, and local elective offices who were preferred by this consultant for a variety of reasons.

The political consultant would solicit monetary payments from his clients in the form of cash or checks as “consulting fees,” and then use portions of these funds to pay Election Board Officials, including DeMuro, in return for tampering with the election results. After receiving payments ranging from between $300 to $5,000 per election from the consultant, DeMuro would add fraudulent votes on the voting machine – also known as “ringing up” votes – for the consultant’s clients and preferred candidates, thereby diluting and distorting the ballots cast by actual voters. DeMuro would add these fraudulent votes to the totals during Election Day, and then would later falsely certify that the voting machine results were accurate.

“DeMuro fraudulently stuffed the ballot box by literally standing in a voting booth and voting over and over, as fast as he could, while he thought the coast was clear. This is utterly reprehensible conduct. The charges announced today do not erase what he did, but they do ensure that he is held to account for those actions,” said U.S. Attorney McSwain. “Voting is the cornerstone of our democracy. If even one vote is fraudulently rung up, the integrity of that election is compromised. I want the public to know that this investigation is active and ongoing, and my Office is taking every possible step that we can to ensure the integrity of the upcoming primary and general elections in the nine counties of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.”

“This defendant abused his office by engaging in election fraud for profit,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Today’s conviction makes it clear that the Department of Justice will do all in its power to protect the integrity of elections and maintain public confidence in all levels of elected government.”

“Domenick DeMuro put a thumb on the scale for certain candidates, in exchange for bribes,” said Michael J. Driscoll, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia Division. “As public trust in the electoral process is vital, the FBI’s message today is clear: election interference of any kind, by hostile foreign actors or dishonest local officials, won’t be tolerated. This is an active, ongoing investigation and we're asking anyone with information on election fraud to contact the FBI.”

“The citizenry of the City of Philadelphia, as well as this Commonwealth and these United States, needs to be confident in the integrity of our elections,” said Captain Leo Hannon, Director of the Pennsylvania State Police, Special Investigations Division. As this investigation clearly illustrates, the Pennsylvania State Police will relentlessly pursue any breach of the sacred trust bestowed upon our public officials. Our agency is proud to partner with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Attorney’s Office, and the United States Department of Justice as a whole to root out corruption at any level of our government. Matters of public corruption and public integrity have been, and shall remain, a top priority of the Pennsylvania State Police.”

This case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the Pennsylvania State Police. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Eric L. Gibson and Richard C. Pilger, U.S. Department of Justice, Director of Elections Crimes Branch, Criminal Division, Public Integrity Section.