Heavy-handed US response to terrorism allowed Fat Leonard to thrive

 

Officers of the US Seventh Fleet, which operates from Hawaii to India, were taking bribes from Fat Leonard and providing information which he used to overcharge the US Navy.

PETALING JAYA: The US government’s overzealous response to terrorism in the wake of the Sept 11 attacks created opportunities for military contractors, like infamous Malaysian ‘Fat Leonard’, to enrich themselves.

In a podcast hosted by journalist and “Billion Dollar Whale” author Tom Wright, Leonard Glenn Francis, or Fat Leonard, detailed how the government’s “feverish and misguided” response to terror threats, including the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, boosted military spending and allowed the rewards from “an already corrupt system” to get even larger.

The Malaysian defence contractor, who had already built a name for himself among naval officers for the lavish gatherings he organised, was among the biggest beneficiaries of the US Navy’s efforts to bolster security

In the podcast, Francis, who then ran Glenn Defense Marine Asia, detailed some of the contracts he undertook, including building floating perimeters around US ships at some ports to prevent them from being attacked.

Fat Leonard.

His friendship with top naval officers allowed him to get favoured treatment. Eventually, the Navy began to pay whatever Leonard asked for, sometimes over US$1 million per ship visit.

“You don’t need to overcharge them, they’ll just give you money for free. If anybody has a defence contract, you’re good for life.

“The military overall, whether the navy, the marine corps, air force, every branch, there’s no one that does due diligence fiscally, because it’s not their money. It’s Uncle Sam’s money,” Francis claimed.

Francis, whose Singapore-based company had contracts to provide food, fuel and security for US naval ships in the Pacific and Indian oceans for three decades, pleaded guilty in 2015 to masterminding a decade-long conspiracy involving dozens of US Navy officials, tens of millions of dollars in fraud, and millions of dollars in bribes.

He was accused of providing cash, prostitutes, travel expenses, luxury items and concert tickets to US navy officers, including those from the US Seventh Fleet – which controls the movement of 60 ships and submarines, 150 aircraft and 20,000 sailors in a huge operational area stretching from Hawaii to India – in return for information he used to overcharge them. - FMT