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The Singapore navy guided-missile frigate RSS Steadfast and the corvette RSS Vigilance are underway during Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training Singapore 2010. CARAT is a series of bilateral exercises held annually in Southeast Asia to strengthen relationships and enhance force readiness.
The Singapore navy guided-missile frigate RSS Steadfast and the corvette RSS Vigilance are underway during Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training Singapore 2010. CARAT is a series of bilateral exercises held
A Navy commander from the San Antonio area has been charged in the armed service branch’s worst corruption scandal in its history.
Federal agents from California arrested Lt. Cmdr. Mario Herrera, 48, on Thursday at his Helotes home on a charge of conspiracy to commit bribery. He is accused of accepting gifts, travel, sex from hookers and expensive meals from a company run by a corrupt contractor that gouged the Navy — and ultimately U.S. taxpayers — multi-millions of dollars.
Leonard Glenn Francis, a 6-foot-3-inch, 350-pound Malaysian known as “Fat Leonard,” ran Glenn Defense Marine Asia in Singapore and pleaded guilty last year to bribing several Navy commanders in exchange for classified information on ship schedules for the Seventh Fleet.
According to documents unsealed Thursday, Herrera gave up some of those ship schedules and used his position in the Navy to steer ships to visit ports that Francis’ company controlled.
Once in those ports, GDMA overcharged the Navy multi-millions of dollars for services that included sewage removal, ground transportation, security and communications. Herrera provided Francis with internal, proprietary U.S. Navy information and intervened on GDMA’s behalf in contract disputes, the Justice Department said in a statement.
According to a criminal complaint affidavit, Herrera directed ships to take alternative routes that benefitted GDMA on two separate occasions, costing the Navy $3.6 million.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry Bemporad released Herrera on unsecured bond after a hearing Thursday in federal court in San Antonio, and instructed him to show up for another hearing next week in San Diego, California, where the charges originated.
Herrera declined comment when approached by an Express-News reporter, and said he did not have a lawyer yet.
gcontreras@express-news.net
Twitter: @gmaninfedland
gcontreras@express-news.net
Twitter: @gmaninfedland
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