Two US admirals, including the naval intelligence director are under investigation as part of a major bribery scandal involving a foreign defense contractor, said Navy officials.
US Navy’s top intelligence officer Vice Admiral Ted Branch and Intelligence Operation’s director Rear Adm Bruce F Loveless were placed on leave and their access to classified material was suspended, the Navy said in a statement.
Both admirals are being investigated for their ties to a Singapore-based defense contractor, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, whose chief executive was arrested in September on charges that he bribed other Navy officers into giving him classified or privileged information in exchange for prostitutes and cash.
Two Navy commanders and a senior Naval criminal investigative service agent have already been arrested and a captain was relieved of his ship’s command last month in connection with the case.
But the announcement of investigations against that the two admirals who were also in-charge of protecting the Navy’s secrets has worsen the crises since 1991 Tailhook scandal, when a convention of naval aviators sexually assaulted scores of women.
Navy officials said that they were bracing for even more bad news to emerge from a corruption case that has expanded swiftly since it became public in September. We do believe that other naval officers will likely be implicated in this scandal, Rear Adm. John F. Kirby, the Navy’s chief spokesman, said in a telephone interview, Washington Post reported.
A Navy official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that the NCIS recently uncovered evidence of personal misconduct against Branch and Loveless as the investigation into Glenn Defense Marine widened.
The suspension of the two senior intelligence officials raises serious questions about whether national security may have been compromised because of improper contact between Navy officers and Glenn Defense Marine.
Prosecutors from the US attorney’s office in San Diego have charged the two Navy commanders with passing classified information about ship and submarine movements to Leonard Glenn Francis, a Malaysian national and the chief executive of Glenn Defense Marine.
To recruit the moles Francis plied the officers with female escorts, cash, paid travel and other perks, including tickets to a Lady Gaga concert in Thailand and a performance of ‘The Lion King’ in Japan, according to court records.
Glenn Defense Marine has serviced and supplied Navy ships and submarines at ports around the Pacific for a quarter-century, providing fuel, tugboats, sewage disposal, wharfside security and other assistance.
Prosecutors, however, alleged that the firm routinely over billed for everything from tugboats to fuel to sewage disposal, defrauding the Navy of more than $10 million.
Francis sought inside information on ship deployments and pressed at least one commander to steer aircraft carriers and other vessels to ports where his firm could easily overcharge the Navy for services, court documents allege.