Navy Officer Allegedly Bribed With Lady Gaga Tickets For Military Secrets
A US Navy commander allegedly traded military secrets for Lady Gaga concert tickets and other so-called perks.
The feds have charged Commander Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz with allegedly leaking classified information including ship movements to a defense contractor. He could face up to five years behind bars if convicted on criminal charges.
The officer was reportedly released on $100,000 bail and is on home detention awaiting trial in San Diego federal court. There may be other Navy officers under investigation for similar kickback allegations.
According to federal prosecutors, Leonard Glenn Francis, CEO of Singapore-based Glenn Defense Marine Asia Ltd., “is alleged to have given the commander, in return, travel, luxury hotel stays and prostitutes, as well as other entertainment — including five tickets to a Lady Gaga concert in Thailand in 2012.” Prosecutors also charged a special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) — an agency TV viewers are familiar with — with corruption as part of the same investigation.
The information Francis obtained was “used to land valuable contracts running support of U.S. submarines and aircraft carriers, prosecutors allege.” In a sting operation, federal agents lured Francis from Singapore to California in September for what they claimed was a business meeting and arrested him in a San Diego hotel room.
According to the Washington Post, “The unfolding investigation is shaping up as the biggest fraud case in years for the Navy. Federal prosecutors allege that Glenn Defense Marine, which has serviced and supplied Navy ships and submarines at ports around the Pacific for a quarter-century, routinely overbilled for everything from tugboats to fuel to sewage disposal… in exchange for prostitutes, travel and other favors, federal authorities allege, Misiewicz provided Francis with classified information about ship movements and steered vessels to specific Asian ports.”
Born in Cambodia, Cmdr. Misiewicz rose to national prominence as a result of his unique background: “… Misiewicz grew up near Phnom Penh during the Vietnam war and was adopted by an American woman shortly before the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975. He escaped the notorious ‘Killing Fields’ and was heralded publicly for his successful rise to become the skipper of the USS Mustin — and made an emotional return to Cambodia in 2010, which was given huge media attention… a visit by the USS Mustin to Sihanoukville, Cambodia, in December 2010, marked his first return to that country since his adoption 37 years earlier.”
