How ‘Fat Leonard’ infiltrated the US Navy’s floating headquarters in Asia

As the flagship for the Seventh Fleet, the USS Blue Ridge plays a critical role in United States security by overseeing all American maritime operations in Asia and the western Pacific. The venerable warship is the US Navy’s second-oldest active-duty vessel and has survived the Vietnam war, the cold war and tensions with China and North Korea.

But there is one foreign threat against which the Blue Ridge proved utterly defenceless for many years: a six-foot-three, 158kg tugboat owner known as “Fat Leonard”.

In a case that ranks as the worst corruption scandal in US Navy history, the Justice Department has charged 15 officers and one enlisted sailor who served on the Blue Ridge with taking bribes from or lying about their ties to Leonard Glenn Francis, a Singapore-based tycoon who held lucrative contracts to service ships and submarines in Asian ports.

For the better part of a decade, as part of a massive scam to defraud the US Navy, Francis systematically infiltrated the Blue Ridge to a degree that is only now coming into focus, more than four years after the defence contractor’s arrest, according to the documents from federal court and the US Navy, as well as interviews with Navy officials and associates of Francis.

Prosecutors say nine sailors from the Seventh Fleet flagship leaked classified information about ship movements and other secrets to Francis, a Malaysian citizen, making the Blue Ridge perhaps the most widely compromised US military headquarters of the modern era. The Navy is investigating dozens of others who served on the ship, which is based in Japan, for possible violations of military law or ethics rules, according to documents and interviews.

Between 2006 and 2013, Francis doled out illicit gifts, hosted epicurean feasts and sponsored sex parties for Blue Ridge personnel on at least 45 occasions, according to federal court records and Navy documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Officers from the Blue Ridge consumed or pocketed about US$1 million in gourmet meals, liquor, cash, vacations, airline tickets, tailored suits, Cuban cigars, luxury watches, cases of beef, designer handbags, antique furniture and concert tickets – and revelled in the attention of an armada of prostitutes, records show.