Former Navy officers’ ‘Fat Leonard’ convictions vacated

Four former Navy officers who were convicted of felonies in one of the military branch’s biggest bribery scandals had their convictions vacated Wednesday. 

Following allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, former Capts. David Newland, James Dolan and David Lausman and former Cmdr. Mario Herrera were allowed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor and pay a $100 fine each, a decision made by U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino at a sentencing hearing in federal court in San Diego, The Associated Press reported. 

A federal jury previously convicted the officers on various counts of accepting bribes from Leonard Francis, a Malaysian former military contractor also known as “Fat Leonard,” and his company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia (GDMA). 

The four former officers had served in the Navy’s 7th Fleet in the Eastern Pacific, where investigators say Francis and GDMA bribed dozens of officers with alcohol, sex and parties, allowing him to overcharge for supplying ships to the Navy or rack up bills for fake services at Southeast Asian ports he controlled. 

Francis was arrested in San Diego in September 2013 and later pleaded guilty in 2015 to charges of bribing Navy officials as part of the $35 million scandal.  

He was assigned to house arrest in San Diego, but in September 2022, weeks before he was scheduled to be sentenced, he cut off his GPS monitor and fled to Venezuela, where he was arrested weeks later and remains today.

On Wednesday, Newland, Dolan and Herrera pleaded guilty to one count each of disclosing information to Francis, while Lausman pleaded guilty to a charge of destroying government property after he purposely smashed a hard drive, according to the AP. 

The pleas constitute a setback for the U.S. government in its years-long attempt to apprehend dozens of military officials caught up in the Fat Leonard bribery scandal. The case, a huge embarrassment for the Defense Department, also included unsavory details about service members seeking out prostitutes and infidelity.  

The U.S. attorney’s office was handed the prosecution in a bid to appear independent from the military justice system, but Sammartino last year ruled that the lead federal prosecutor committed “flagrant misconduct” by withholding information from defense lawyers.  

The behavior was not enough to have the case dismissed, but with various Navy officials, defense contractors and others involved awaiting sentencing next month, it’s unclear if the misstep will affect those cases.