Commander gets six years in ‘Fat Leonard’ case

One of the highest-ranking Naval officers charged so far in the sprawling Fat Leonard bribery and contracting fraud scheme was sentenced to more than six years in federal prison on Friday, the longest sentence handed down so far in the scandal.

Commander Michael Vannak Khiem Misiewicz, 48, pleaded guilty earlier to one charge of conspiracy and a second of bribery. Prosecutors said that for nearly two years he gleefully accepted gifts, travel, stays at fancy hotels and the services of prostitutes, all paid for by Leonard Glenn “Fat Leonard” Francis, the owner of a port servicing company that supplied Navy ships in ports across the Pacific.

In exchange, Misiewicz gave Francis confidential information on ship schedules for the U.S. Seventh Fleet, where he served aboard the USS Blue Ridge as the Deputy Operations Officer in 2011 and 2012.

In court Friday, prosecutors revealed that Misiewicz gave Francis classified information related to the Navy’s ballistic missile defense operations in the Pacific at a meeting in 2012, where he handed over a sheaf of ship schedules and other information, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Pletcher.

That leak caused “significant disruption” as the government had to work to repair the damage from the leak, prosecutors said.

Misiewicz used his influence to try to steer ships to ports in Asia that were controlled by Francis’s company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia.

Misiewicz, a decorated officer whose compelling life story of a child adopted from Cambodia who went on to the Naval Academy and a sterling career on the high seas, apologized for his conduct before he was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Janis L. Sammartino.

“I love our country,” he said on the verge of tears. “I love my Navy.”

Prosecutors painted a different picture. Pletcher wrote in a sentencing memo that Misiewicz “sold out” the Navy to Francis and said none of the 10 officers and civilians charged so far in the scandal were as important to Francis as the commander.

Pletcher said people who dealt with Misiewicz when he was with the Seventh Fleet came to see him as “a GDMA-trained bulldog roaming freely around the USS Blue Ridge” command ship.

Misiewicz used his position and the respect he had from fellow officers to help GDMA, mostly getting what Francis called “big decks” — aircraft carriers — into ports where GDMA had control and could rip off the Navy, Pletcher said.

In one instance in 2011, prosecutors said he got the carrier John C. Stennis to stay at a Malaysian port run by Francis, netting an extra $250,000 for the company. In all, prosecutors have said the years-long bribery scheme resulted in at least $35 million in losses for the service.

The judge, while acknowledging Misiewicz’s sterling career, said his actions were a betrayal “to your country and your shipmates.” She ordered Misiewicz to pay $95,000 in restitution to the government, and fined him $100,000.

Francis spent years bribing key Navy officers and civilian officials so they would use their influence to get him contracts, and help steer ships to his preferred ports. Once there, he routinely defrauded the Navy by overcharging for services he had contracted to provide, such as fuel, fresh water, shore transportation and so on.

Prosecutors have described the scheme as a circle of fraud — bribes to individuals driving contracts and decisions to send ships to certain ports, which led to overbillings that provided funds for more bribes, and so on.

Defense lawyer Mark Adams argued that Misiewicz was outside that circle — not involved in the overbilling fraud scheme, with no knowledge of what Francis was doing. He also said that decisions on which ports ships should use is complex and involves many people. To imply Misiewicz had enough power to direct ships to ports was misleading, Adams said.

The attorney acknowledged that the moment Misiewicz took gifts, any decisions he made as an officer that affected GDMA were compromised. Eventually, it ended his career.

“His fall from the highest ranks of the Navy has been, much like his career, extraordinary,” Adams said.

In a letter to the judge, Misiewicz lamented his friendship with Francis.

“I threw away 30 years of serving our nation,” he wrote, “for very little.”

Francis was a well-known contractor for the Navy when the two met in 2011, a time when his marriage was falling apart, Misiewicz wrote.

Their relationship grew to the point where they exchanged thousands of messages by text, phone and email and developed nicknames for each other — “Big Bro” and “Little Bro.”

“He had me convinced he was my true friend, and a strategic partner for our nation,” Misiewicz wrote.

But now, he wrote, he looks back on that relationship with “complete disgust.” His marriage has crumbled and his separation from the Navy is pending.

Misiewicz was ordered to report to prison on Aug. 1.