美第七舰队爆数十名高级军官腐败案：
美酒、美女、大龙虾......
继民财经汇导读：2017年3月14日，一名退休的美国海军海军上将与八名海军军官在一次大规模的合同贿赂丑闻中被起诉，这个腐败案涉及收受豪华食物、旅行，性贿赂，泄露军事秘密等，并给纳税人带来百万美元的损失。
美国海军后卫海军少将布鲁斯·洛维斯和八名高级海军军官在该案件中被指控，起诉书长达78页；该起诉书共指控被告人数高达25人；这些被告被指控与在新加坡Glenn国防海洋亚洲公司（Glenn Defense Marine Asia）的欺诈和腐败调查有关；该公司是为航母提供基地服务的公司，Leonards Francis( 又称为fat leonards , “肥仔”）弗朗西斯则是该公司的前首席执行官。
这些海军军官分别于加利福尼亚州，德克萨斯州，佛罗里达州，科罗拉多州和弗吉尼亚州被捕。他们将会被带到圣地亚哥面临指控。
被指控的那些人中有二十人是现任或前美国海军官员，五名是格伦国防海事亚洲公司（Glenn Defense Marine Asia）高管。十三个已经认罪，而其他案件正在进行中。
检察官罗宾逊说：“这是美国海军史无前例的背叛，而且是由海军最高级军官直接参与的。
“这些行为出自美国海军最大的舰队第七舰队最高的领导人，这个腐败程度惊人，他们积极合作一个腐败团队，他们出卖商业机密，为一个贪婪的外国承包商的利益服务，而不顾他们自己国家的利益"。
这些海军官员面临各种指控包括：贿赂，串谋贿赂，诚实服务欺诈和阻挠司法，并向联邦官员提出虚假陈述。只有两名被告是现役，其他被告最近退休。
行贿人肥仔弗朗西斯（Francis)被指控花费数千美元贿赂海军官员，请这些海军军官们大吃大喝，所吃喝的内容竟然包括：鹅肝砂锅，鸭腿和牛尾汤等奢侈而好吃的食物。这位行贿人被指控的行贿内容还包括：2000美元盒的雪茄和稀有干邑，并在花哨的酒店为军官们组织了“狂野的性派对”。看来美军军官们在和平年代真是有吃、有喝、有抽、而且还饱后思那个欲。不过这一切竟然是通过受贿得来的。
以下为更多例证：
肥仔弗朗西斯为了获取国防采购合同而邀请海军军官进行豪华大吃大喝的一些例子包括：
2007年6月在澳大利亚悉尼举行了花费高达11,898美元的晚餐，弗朗西斯在那里递给美军官两张软盘，其中包含许多美国海军船只的分类港口访问信息;
2007年3月在日本东京举行晚宴，弗朗西斯在此对被告提供龙虾大餐（小编注：应该不是小龙虾，应该是大龙虾，但不是麻辣的那种，应该是用奶油焗的那种）和其他与精致香槟搭配的主菜，并授予海军军官定制领带。这回美国军官们是又吃又喝又拿；吃完龙虾后，每个人拎条小领带回家。
小编在这里不得不表扬一下本案的检查官，在几十页的指控书中，竟然对受贿的食物描述如此细致，不仅仅指出军官们吃的是什么，还指出这个龙虾是如何烹饪的。不知道在法庭上如果被告不认账的话，该如何指证。比如：检察官问：你是吃的龙虾吗？军官：不知道。检察官或者不的不拿出餐厅小票，或者不得不请出龙虾来作龙虾证。不过如果那只龙虾已经被吃了，所以估计只能请其龙虾兄弟出来走几步到法庭上作证了。期待。
古云吃人的嘴软，拿人的手短；美军军官也一样。作为对行贿人的回报，海军官员努力帮助弗朗西斯和他的公司赢得或者续签美国国防合同，允许他为美国海军船只提供港口服务；军官门并将船舶重定向到东南亚弗朗西斯控制的港口，以便他可以控制海军食品，燃料，水，拖船和污水清除的用品和服务。被告还被指控破坏国防合同的公平竞争，并被指控招募新成员加入共谋。
起诉书还指出，这些被告军官们使用假名和外国电子邮件服务器提供商保持贿赂骗局。检察官罗宾逊说，他们使用各种名字，例如“酷孩子”，“兄弟会”，“兄弟会”，“狼群”，“家族”和“狮子王的后宫”。这些军官们看来都还挺幽默的。
美国海军第七舰队是最大的舰队，包括60-70艘船，200-300飞机和40,000水手和海军陆战队。第七舰队在东南亚，太平洋岛屿，澳大利亚和俄罗斯以及印度洋领地的西太平洋运行。
如果这些军官最终被判有罪的话，海军被告人面临数十年的监禁，数十万美元的罚款。
其也于3月14日被起诉包括Capts David Newland，James Dolan，Donald Hornbeck和David Lausman;海军陆战队Cmdr。马里奥·埃雷拉Lt. Cmdr。 Stephen Shedd和首席保证官Robert Gorsuch。
对行贿人肥仔Francis 的审判尚未进行。
在和平年代，就为了几只奶油焗龙虾、几杯香槟、若干雪茄、几条领带、手表、几顿晚餐、一场野派对，就把美军第七舰队的几十名海军军官给长期来下水了；在这货币超发的年代，在这全球资产荒的年代、在这全世界人民都热衷于边买房边哭喊房价太高的年代， 原来美国第七舰队的军官竟然是块价值洼地。如此的便宜，这不仅令美海军脸面全无，也令那些持币追高的炒房者们，后悔不及呀。几只龙虾就可以搞定几十名第七舰队的海军军官，如果一套学区房既不是至少可以换来一个排的美国大兵？让他们天天在后院干活去。看看，这些货不错吧？而且不贵。
再说说这些军官们，就为了这，还要面临数十年监禁和几十万美元罚款，这也严重违反了成本效益原则呀。
军人还是要有军人的气魄，和平时代的军人更应该重温沙场的英勇气概。
末了，送上我国唐代诗人王翰的《凉州词》，看看什么才是真正的军魂：
葡萄美酒夜光杯，
欲饮琵琶马上催。
醉卧沙场君莫笑，
古来征战几人回?
葡萄美酒倒满了华贵的酒杯，正要畅饮的时候，马上的琵琶也声声响起，仿佛在催促我上前作战。在沙场上牺牲了请你不要哭泣悲伤，古往今来，奔赴沙场的人中有几个人能平安归来？
以上是继民财经汇导读，接下来是歌曲欣赏和自由阅读时间， 请君随意......
Navy Admiral, 8 Others Charged in Widening Bribery Scandal
SAN DIEGO (CN) – A retired U.S. Navy admiral was indicted Tuesday along with eight naval officers in a massive contract-bribe scandal involving lavish food and travel, sex parties, military secrets and millions of taxpayer dollars.
U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Bruce Loveless and eight high-ranking Navy officers were charged in a 78-page federal grand jury indictment unsealed Tuesday that includes allegations of accepting luxury dinner and travel and sex parties with prostitutes in exchange for sharing classified information with foreign defense contractor Leonard Francis, according to Acting U.S. Attorney Alana Robinson for the Southern District of California.
Including Tuesday’s indictments, 25 people have been charged in connection with the fraud and corruption investigation into Singapore-based Glenn Defense Marine Asia, for which Francis served as its former CEO.
The Navy officers were arrested in California, Texas, Florida, Colorado and Virginia. The United States intends to bring them to San Diego to face charges.
Twenty of those who have been charged are current or former U.S. Navy officials, and five are Glenn Defense Marine Asia executives. Thirteen have already pleaded guilty while the other cases are pending.
“This is a fleecing and betrayal of the United States Navy in epic proportions, and it was allegedly carried out by the Navy’s highest-ranking officers,” Robinson said.
“The alleged conduct amounts to a staggering degree of corruption by the most prominent leaders of the Seventh Fleet – the largest fleet in the U.S. Navy – actively worked together as a team to trade secrets for sex, serving the interests of a greedy foreign defense contractor, and not those of their own country.”
The Navy officials face various charges including bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery, honest services fraud and obstruction of justice and making false statements to federal officers. Only two of the defendants are active duty, while the others are recently retired.
Francis is accused of spending thousands of dollars bribing the Navy officials, including paying for extravagant meals of foie gras terrine, duck leg confit and oxtail soup. He also bought the defendants $2,000 boxes of cigars and rare cognac and organized “wild sex parties in fancy hotels,” according to Robinson.
Some examples of the lavish meals Francis treated the Navy officers to in exchange for defense spending contracts included a $11,898 dinner in Sydney, Australia, in June 2007, where Francis was handed two floppy disks containing classified port visit information for many U.S. Navy ships; and a dinner in March 2007 in Tokyo, Japan, where Francis treated the defendants to lobster thermidor and other courses paired with fine champagne, and also gifted the Navy officers custom-made neckties.
In exchange for the lavish gifts, the Navy officials worked to help Francis and his company win and keep defense contracts to provide port services to U.S. Navy ships, and to redirect ships to ports controlled by Francis in Southeast Asia so he could charge the Navy for supplies and services for food, fuel, water, tugboats and sewage removal. The defendants are also accused of sabotaging competing defense contracts and recruiting new members to the conspiracy.
The defendants used fake names and foreign email server providers to keep the bribery scam under wraps. They referred to themselves using various names such as “the Cool Kids,” “the Band of Brothers,” “the Brotherhood,” “the Wolfpack,” “the Familia,” and “the Lion King’s Harem,” Robinson said.
The U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet is the largest fleet, comprised of 60-70 ships, 200-300 aircraft and 40,000 sailors and Marines. The Seventh Fleet operates in the West Pacific Ocean throughout Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, Australia and Russia as well as Indian Ocean territories.
The Navy defendants face up to decades in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines if convicted.
The other defendants indicted Tuesday include Capts. David Newland, James Dolan, Donald Hornbeck and David Lausman; Marine Corps Col. Enrico DeGuzman; Cmdr. Mario Herrera; Lt. Cmdr. Stephen Shedd and Chief Warrant Officer Robert Gorsuch.
Francis still awaits sentencing.
Admiral and 8 Other Navy Officers Indicted on Bribery Charges
WASHINGTON — A retired admiral and eight other high-ranking officers were indicted on Tuesday in a widening bribery scandal in which prosecutors say a foreign contractor traded luxury travel, lavish gifts and prostitutes for inside intelligence.
A total of 25 military officers and private-sector executives have now been prosecuted in one of the worst corruption scandals to hit the military in years.
Prosecutors, laying out in unsparing detail a plot that stretched from to Washington, accused the officers — all with the Seventh Fleet in the Pacific, the Navy’s largest — of betraying the public trust for bribes from a well-connected military contractor in Singapore, . The scheme cost the Navy “tens of millions of dollars” in overbillings to Mr. Francis’ firm, as he relied on sensitive and sometimes classified information the officers had given them to game the system, according to the indictment.
The yearslong bribery scheme “amounts to a staggering degree of corruption by the most prominent leaders of the Seventh Fleet,” said Alana W. Robinson, the acting United States attorney in San Diego, where the charges were brought.
The officers “actively worked together as a team to trade secrets for sex, serving the interests of a greedy foreign defense contractor, and not those of their own country,” Ms. Robinson said.
The most prominent official charged on Tuesday was Bruce Loveless, a retired rear admiral who was taken into custody that day at his home in Coronado, Calif., outside San Diego. The admiral was knocked down a rank after he came under investigation in 2013; with two stars before the demotion, he was the highest-ranking officer to be charged in the scandal. Another one-star admiral, Robert Gilbeau, was charged earlier in the case.
The indictment dates Admiral Loveless’s involvement in the scheme to 2007, when he was a Navy captain involved in assessing foreign intelligence threats for the Seventh Fleet. In one of many lavish events cataloged in the indictment, prosecutors said Mr. Francis, the military contractor, took Admiral Loveless and another defendant, Lt. Cmdr. Stephen Shedd, out for a $5,000 night of wining and dining in Singapore and gave Commander Shedd and his wife $25,000 watches at the end of the night.
Prosecutors contend that Commander Shedd then gave classified intelligence about Navy contracts and fleet movements to Mr. Francis, who was chief executive of a contractor called Glenn Defense Marine Asia, which had extensive United States military contracts. At the contractor’s behest, Commander Shedd passed on “cigars and fine wine” to Admiral Loveless and other Navy officers involved in the exchange, prosecutors said.
According to the indictment, after a night of fine dining and prostitutes in Bangkok, Commander Shedd emailed Mr. Francis to say that Admiral Loveless and two other officers who were hosted for the event “were all smiles on the drive home over their ‘one night in Bangkok.’ ”
The indictment also accuses Admiral Loveless of obstructing the bribery investigation by denying knowledge of the scheme.
Asked by Navy investigators in 2013 whether he had ever received anything of value from Mr. Francis, Admiral Loveless responded “never,” prosecutors said. And he said he did not recall ever staying in a hotel room that he had not paid for, the prosecutors said, despite evidence that Mr. Francis had paid the bill for numerous stays for him and others at lavish hotels around Asia where ships from the Seventh Fleet were docked.
Mr. Francis in San Diego, as have 10 former military officers previously charged in the case.