Naval Commander Traded Classified Information for Prostitutes and Lady Gaga Tickets
A 48-year-old U.S. Navy commander named Michael Misiewicz has plead guilty to an array of corruption charges stemming from several expensive kickbacks he received from Glenn Defense Marine Asia, a Singaporean defense contractor. According to The Washington Post, Glenn Defense repeatedly rewarded Misiewicz for rerouting certain naval aircraft carriers to overseas ports under their control (allowing them to bill the Department of Defense for millions of dollars) and for divulging information about the carriers’ whereabouts, which are considered classified military secrets:
Glenn Defense Marine Asia executives catered to Misiewicz’s weakness for sex, travel and luxury goods, the indictment states. The firm paid for Misiewicz to spend time with prostitutes on multiple occasions, including at a luxury hotel in Manila in February 2011, an evening in Japan in April 2012, and two nights at a Singapore hotel in September 2012, according to the affidavit and indictment.
On another occasion, Francis made a reservation with an escort service to provide four prostitutes to spend at least three days with Misiewicz and another unnamed Navy commander in Singapore in March 2011, according to the affidavit. That encounter, however, fell through at the last minute when the officers were assigned to help with the Navy’s emergency response to a massive tsunami that struck Japan.
The contractor also enticed Misiewicz with tickets to attend a 2012 Lady Gaga concert in Thailand with four other (unnamed) Navy sailors. The formal indictment against Misiewicz, filed in the Southern District of California on January 6, even included a chart of the gifts he’d received over the years:
The chief executive of Glenn Defense, Leonard Glenn Francis, has previously plead guilty to bribery charges. According to naval investigators, his company has targeted other Navy sailors, including other officers, using similar tactics.