SAN DIEGO — A former U.S. Navy captain who was caught up in an enormous contracting scandal was sentenced Thursday to 2 1/2 years in federal jail for taking practically $91,000 in bribes.
Retired Capt. David Haas additionally was ordered to make restitution and to pay a $30,000 effective.
Prosecutors stated Haas, 54, of Kailua, Hawaii, was amongst dozens of Navy officers who had been bribed to assist receive protection contracts for a person often known as “Fats Leonard” Francis.
Francis owned Singapore-based Glenn Protection Marine Asia Ltd., or GDMA, which equipped meals, water and gas to vessels for many years. He has acknowledged overbilling the Navy by $35 million with the assistance of officers whom he plied with prostitutes, Kobe beef, cigars and different bribes so they might direct their ships to Pacific ports Francis managed in Southeast Asia.
Greater than 30 folks have been convicted or pleaded responsible within the sweeping corruption case. Francis, who additionally pleaded responsible to felony prices in 2015, was awaiting sentencing when he fled residence confinement in San Diego final yr and is now in custody in Venezuela, the place he has requested asylum.
From 2011 to 2013, Haas, who was captain of the seventh Fleet command ship Blue Ridge, accepted tens of hundreds of {dollars}’ value of leisure, together with resort rooms, prostitutes, alcohol and dinners, throughout multi-day events organized by Francis abroad, prosecutors stated.
Haas pleaded responsible in 2020 to conspiracy to commit bribery, a cost that might have carried as much as 5 years in jail and a $250,000 effective.
In federal court docket in San Diego on Thursday, he informed the choose he had introduced disgrace on his household and the Navy and tarnished his two-decade profession, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
“I ought to by no means have had a relationship with that man,” Haas stated. “I ought to by no means have allowed Leonard Francis into wherever.”
© Copyright 2023 Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials is probably not printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
