Navy rebukes 3 admirals for accepting dinners, gifts

2015-07-21T16:02:27-04:00

From: Navy Times

Fancy dinners, subsidized shopping sprees and elaborate model ships: These are the ploys "Fat" Leonard Francis used to curry favor with senior Navy leaders on the carrier Reagan on its 2006 cruise in Asia.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus accused Rear Adms. Mike Miller, Terry Kraft and David Pimpo of "showing very poor judgement and leadership regarding [their] relationship with Mr. Leonard Francis, the president of Glenn Defense Marine Asia," according to letters of censure issued in February and obtained by Navy Times on Friday through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Miller was the strike group commander, Kraft the carrier's commanding officer, and Pimpo the ship's supply officer on the deployment.

The revelations are the latest in a scandal that has rocked the Navy, with now five admirals tied to Francis and GDMA, the port servicing contractor at the center of a wide-ranging bribery investigation by the Justice Department. The expanding bribery scandal has implicated active duty officers and sailors and a parade of allegations of the high-level sketchy dealings with the Malaysian contractor for the better part of a decade.

The Navy disclosed the retirement grade determinations for the admirals, a judgment of the last paygrade at which they served honorably. Miller retires as a vice admiral after 41 years of service; Kraft retires as a two-star after 34 years, and Pimpo retires as a captain at 30 years. The Navy was referred the allegations by the Justice Department, who declined to pursue charges for reasons believed to include the fact these charges fell beyond the statute of limitations.

In the case of the censured admirals, Francis threw the Reagan's senior leaders lavish dinner parties at world-class restaurants such as Petrus in Hong Kong and Suisse Chalet in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The officers paid $50 a head for dinner and cigars valued at nearly $800, according to the letters.

Francis also gifted Miller and Pimpo ship models valued at more than $800 each, but they paid well below that rate for them. Miller was cited for receiving a $870 model of the Reagan, but paid only $500 for the tiny version of his flagship.

Of the three, Pimpo received the harshest criticism from Mabus. Mabus cited Pimpo's "repeated and increasingly personal contact" with Leonard and accused him of "repeatedly paying Mr. Francis for personal expenses at a rate far below the market value of the items and services which were provided."

Pimpo also used Francis to set up a tour of Hong Kong and secure a nice hotel room for him, a service for which he did not pay and fell outside the scope of GDMA's contract with the Navy, Mabus said.

Miller is said to have sent an email to Francis before his 7th Fleet deployment stating that he was looking forward to "renewing" his friendship with the contractor, then subsequently received gifts from Francis, for which Miller underpaid. A year ago, Miller turned over the prestigious superintendent post at the Naval Academy, but has been held on active-duty pending the results of these charges and has been paid as an O-8 since.

Kraft is similarly accused of attending the dinner parties and underpaying.

Francis in January pleaded guilty to charges of bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery and conspiracy to defraud the United States. As the head of husbanding firm Glenn Defense Marine Asia, Francis is accused of leading at least a decade-long scheme to over-bill the Navy for ships pulling into ports across the Pacific, and plied senior officers with gifts, prostitutes, parties and golf.

Kraft, Miller and Pimpo bring the number of admirals implicated in the Fat Leonard affair to five, but Navy Times' sister publication Defense News reported Feb. 8 that nearly three dozen admirals are under federal investigation for ties to GDMA.

Kraft, Miller and Pimpo did not respond to emails seeking comment by press time Saturday.

The first two names to be released publicly were Vice Adm. Ted Branch, director of Naval Intelligence, and his deputy, Rear Adm. Bruce Loveless. Both have had their security clearances suspended for 20 months but remain in their positions.

Branch is under suspicion for receiving a gift from Leonard during his time as CO of the carrier Nimitz in 2005.

The three rebuked officers from the 2006 deployment of Reagan suggests prosecutors may be working their way through the carriers that deployed to 7th Fleet over the past decade searching for more dubious relationships.

http://www.navytimes.com/story/military/2015/07/18/secnav-mabus-miller-kraft-pimpo/30340729/

Response by MAJ Keira Brennan made Jul 21 at 2015 4:07 PM

2015-07-21T16:07:40-04:00

Why is it SOOOOOO DIFFICULT to do the RIGHT THING as a Flag Officer?? OLD NEWS in the Army http://archive.armytimes.com/article/20121113/NEWS/211130305/4-star-who-headed-AFRICOM-demoted

Response by LCDR Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 21 at 2015 4:28 PM

2015-07-21T16:28:54-04:00

It's inexcusable and it seems they knew what they were doing was wrong.

I've seen mention several times of the model ship that $500 was paid for but valued at $870. I'd like to see a little bit more info on that since those amounts would actually lead me to believe the Admiral may have thought he paid a legitimate amount. Obviously doesn't excuse anything else he did and shouldn't change the outcome.

Response by MSgt James Mullis made Jul 21 at 2015 5:09 PM

2015-07-21T17:09:55-04:00

Wow, What did these gentlemen think they were...Congressmen? Senators? Governors? Cabinet Members? Presidents? Only members of the executive branch can accept this kind of treatment without consequences.

Response by MSgt Robert Pellam made Jul 21 at 2015 6:46 PM

2015-07-21T18:46:32-04:00

So these guys get caught...and no charges because of "statue of Limitations" So they get to retire off into the sunset. I wonder if they will get a job with GDMA? Any bets?

This is what we see. How long was this really known though? And how many other Officers are out there playing politics? I have a huge amount of respect for the officer corps. O-1 to O-6 are some of the hardest working leaders. The good ones I know there is always bad apples and I have seen a few. But after that. Those that move on I start to wonder. I know being an Officer is about politics. But stuff like this. How much money has officers miss used, abused and wasted? Would it be enough to save those 40,000 Army members that is being cut? How much money has been diverted to Corporations so an officer can make sure of a cushy job on the outside. These Three, They knew what they were doing. I even wonder if they planned to get caught. Now they have to retire. And well I assume go work for someone. I would like to see the full investigation. How much money did they manage to swing to this company. Screw the Model boats and dinners. Where is the real Fraud. These men are not officers of the US Military. They're crap eating mercenaries who gamed the system. They should be stripped of all Rank, Entitlement, and Charged. In fact, I see this as a form of treason. I am not embarrassed by this, I am enraged over the slap on the hand they get, and the failure of United States military leadership as a whole.

Response by PO1 Donald Hammond made Jul 21 at 2015 6:50 PM

2015-07-21T18:50:14-04:00

Admiral where I work was delayed in retiring as 4 star due to this investigation. He was finally cleared of any wrongdoing and his retirement/change of command happened within a week and was held at the location of his replacement. Very interesting to me how fast they shuffled him out the door after clearing him.

Response by PO1 Shahida Marmol made Jul 21 at 2015 7:13 PM

2015-07-21T19:13:16-04:00

Ahhh what a little bit of Power does to people. Some people will always think they're above the law until it's too late. These men are lucky they're even able to retire.

Response by LCDR Rabbah Rona Matlow made Jul 21 at 2015 7:37 PM

2015-07-21T19:37:31-04:00

This is old news. There was a post about this last week on RP...

Response by PO1 James Booker made Jul 22 at 2015 10:35 AM

2015-07-22T10:35:39-04:00

After reading "the rest of the story" it's obvious that the corruption has run much deeper than 3 admirals. This is part of a much larger, and much more widespread racquet spanning virtually every port in the SEAsia theatre of operations. He(Francis) will be locked up for a long, long time and many of those "stars" will have a much less lavish post retirement lifestyle to look forward to.

Response by PO1 John Miller made Jul 23 at 2015 7:59 AM

2015-07-23T07:59:38-04:00

And yet the one Officer I personally give a shit about, VADM Ted Branch, is still in limbo. I was on the Nimitz for the 2005 WESTPAC and have the utmost respect for "Twig."

Response by PO3 Pat Hagan made Jan 31 at 2018 3:53 PM

2018-01-31T15:53:04-05:00

Wow ! Just found this story as I was skimming through the different topics. I immediately recognized on of the Admirals . Mike Miller was my CO back in 1989-90 when he commanded VS-24 at NAS Cecil Field. Needless to say I was shocked because he was a great squadron skipper. Man ... you just never know about people.