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, 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.
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