US Navy captain jailed over massive bribery scandal in Pacific

[malaise]

Last edited Sat Mar 26, 2016, 10:02 AM - Edit history (1)

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/26/us-navy-captain-jailed-over-massive-bribery-scandal-in-pacific
<snip>
A Navy captain who oversaw operations in the US Pacific Fleet has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison for providing classified information to a Malaysian defence contractor in exchange for luxury hotel stays and the services of prostitutes.

Captain Daniel Dusek, 49, is the highest-ranking officer to be charged in one of the military’s worst bribery scandals.


A US judge also ordered Dusek to pay a $70,000 fine and $30,000 in restitution to the Navy for giving ship and submarine schedules to help contractor Leonard Glenn Francis.

Francis pleaded guilty in the case in 2015, admitting that his Singapore-based port services company, Glenn Defence Marine Asia (GDMA) plied Dusek and others with meals, alcohol, luxury hotel stays and other gifts to ensure US Navy ships stopped at ports where GDMA operated.

GDMA over-billed the maritime branch by more than $34m, according to court documents.

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Bushco's goons in Iraq should be sweating

[yeoman6987]

1. I never understand someone who would sell our secrets to another country

That has to be one of our worst crimes.....I know there are plenty of others, but this one just seems so horrible.

[7962]

5. Agreed

[whathehell]

7. Exactly...Isn't this called being a traitor?...Why is he getting only 4 years?

[rjsquirrel]

8. Except

that's not what happened.

He sold port schedules to a contractor.

But by all means let's consider that the same as handing nuclear blueprints to North Korea! What's life without a little false comparison?

[EL34x4]

16. Exactly.

Port schedules, while sensitive, aren't exactly top secret. There's just too many logistics involved.

Four years is appropriate. Not to mention, such a sentence likely comes with a dismissal (the officer equivalent of a Dishonorable Discharge). This will be the gift that keeps on giving; a full loss of veterans' benefits and a whole lot of doors closed to future employment.

[rpannier]

25. Most things in the military carry some level of classification

When I was in (89-93) we were instructed that phone books were considered classified and giving out information regarding who was stationed on post could be considered a breach of security
Releasing information about something that was classified that the public was aware of was also considered a breach of security
Selling port schedules would likely fall under releasing classified information (maybe not TS/SCI)

[1939]

26. Technically not "classification"

Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret are classifications.

Phone books and the like are protected as For Official Use Only (FOUO) which is a level of protection (you don't hand them out on the street corner) but you don't have to keep them locked in a safe.

The ship's port schedules were probably FOUO and it was wrong to share them with the contractor.

I guess the old "If you can eat it, drink it, or screw it in one evening, it isn't a bribe" rule no longer applies.

[yeoman6987]

29. You actually may be right. Not nearly as bad as some for sure.

[Euphoria]

2. Only four years?

Not enough.

[Human101948]

3. Re: BUSHCO

I think they have the connections to insure that hey will never be held to account.

Unfortunately so.

[malaise]

21. And yet the evidence re Kissinger is now public

knowledge.

[Human101948]

22. Yes, but he is not being held tgo account...

Instead, he is being celebrated by Hillary and others.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Cleaning up the Bush regime mess is gonna take awhile.

It might go faster if we had anyone in Gov. who was seriously interested in investigations.
besides Warren, of course.

[rjsquirrel]

9. Where do you see the name Bush?

It's been Obama's navy for 7 years.

Corruption didn't start or stop under shrub.

[malaise]

19. You don't know what we're talking about re Bushco

do you?

[JHB]

12. The captain's actions took place in 2010...

...so it's not Bush-connected corruption.

Besides, if the Bush League were involved, guilty party would be someone higher up in the command structure.

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. But.....he had to have been in the service for some time to become Captain, no? n/t

[JHB]

15. Starting his career under Poppy's adminisration does not make him...

...a member of the BFEE. If he were actually Bush-connected he'd either have a higher rank by now or or have a nice, well-paying job with a defense contractor or lobbying group.


(That timeframe estimate is just based on the math: he's 49 now, so he would have gotten out of college and become an ensign in 1988 or 1989.)

[rjsquirrel]

17. Oh come on

The BFEE is conspiracy theory silliness.


He's a corrupt officer in it for the money and sex. They've existed in the us military since Washington, as in George. It's so silly to make this evidence of a super secret Bush cabal whenever he joined up. The scandal happened under Obama as CinC.

Sometimes a selfish asshole is just a selfish asshole.

[JHB]

18. Which was precisely my point.

[malaise]

27. True but I think

the whole foreign policy sphere also creates a problem at home

[DrBulldog]

6. Notice that it was a BRITISH newspaper that finally told us about this mess?

America's corporate news media really sucks.

[MH1]

10. America's corporate news media is too busy covering Trump, with the occasional nod to

other presidential candidates and discussion thereof. And currently an occasional nod to TERROR!! TERROR!! TERROR!!

Not much room there for mundane coverage of corruption in our military.

[malaise]

23. I love the Guardian

it's not corporate at ll

[fasttense]

11. Sounds like a bribery scandal

So, I really doubt that no Admirals were involved. More likely it went all up and down the chain of command.

This is what free trade or laissez-faire capatalism always evolves into - criminal activity.

[malaise]

24. Most of these scandals involve

men and women at the top of the chain - agree 100%

[1939]

28. While the information we have here is sketchy

I am trying to fill in the blanks based on my military and govt civilian experience.

1. This guy was in operations and not in contracting.

2. The contractor has the govt going after him for large sums of money. This would indicated a problem in contracting which might be either venal acceptance of bribes or, a likely possibility, plain incompetence in the contracting office.

3. This guy was getting wined and dined (and procured for) in return for giving the contractor info on ship arrivals which enabled him to be more responsive to the contracting office than his competitors.

There may be bribery involved and maybe people should be fired, but his guy was probably just trading in favors because he couldn't steer the contracts.

[JHB]

13. Can you delete the line about the Chinese hacker?

That's from a link to a different story that you scooped in with your copy & paste. It's not connected to the story in the OP, and makes it look like the captain sold secrets to the Chinese instead of throwing work to particular companies in exchange for nights in high-priced hotels in the company of high-priced hookers.

[malaise]

20. Thanks - will do n/t