Ex-Navy official gets six years in prison for taking US$350,000 in bribes from ‘Fat Leonard’

A retired US Navy official was sentenced on Friday to six years in federal prison after he admitted taking more than us$350,000 in bribes and sexual favours from an Asian defence contractor.

Paul Simpkins, a former contracting supervisor based in Singapore, is the sixth Navy official so far to receive prison time in a massive corruption scandal that has rattled the maritime service since the first defendants were arrested in 2013. Another half-dozen current and former Navy officers have pleaded guilty but are still waiting to learn their sentences. More arrests are expected; prosecutors have said 200 people have been placed under investigation.

In exchange for the bribes, Simpkins, 61, steered multimillion-dollar Navy business deals to Leonard Glenn Francis, a Singapore-based contractor known as “Fat Leonard”, according to court records. Francis’ company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, held contracts for more than 25 years to resupply and refuel Navy ships and submarines at ports across Asia.

Court records show that Simpkins and Francis met in a Singapore hotel bar in 2006 to discuss how to rig the awarding of lucrative contracts to service Navy vessels in Thailand. Prosecutors have said Francis first gave the Navy official an envelope stuffed with US$50,000 in cash. In subsequent months, according to the plea agreement in the case, Francis wired another US$300,000 in bribes to a Japanese bank account controlled by Simpkins’ wife.

Prosecutors say that Simpkins received more money in bribes than any other Navy official charged in the scandal. “Simpkins valued and sold his office to Francis in the same manner as an automobile dealer sells used cars,” they wrote in a court filing.