Court-martialing retirees? Fat Leonard cloud still looms for many current and former sailors

[nitpicker]

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-navy/2017/11/20/court-martialing-retirees-fat-leonard-cloud-still-looms-over-hundreds/

Court-martialing retirees? Fat Leonard cloud still looms for many current and former sailors

By: Geoff Ziezulewicz    18 hours ago

As the booze-soaked, hooker-laden and kick-back fueled debacle known as the “Fat Leonard” scandal continues to ensnare scores of current and former Navy officers, a little-known military justice provision means the Navy could target culpable retirees for a court-martial or other disciplinary measures. While most sailors believe themselves to be free of military stricture after retirement, retirees who fulfilled an active-duty career remain subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice and can be charged under that system long after they have stopped putting on the uniform. “Retired pay is not a pension, it is retired pay,” said Zack Spilman, a former Marine Corps judge advocate now in private practice. “It is reduced compensation for reduced current service.” Most sailors do not realize that they are not free of the military after their 20 years, Spilman said. “Military retirement is not retirement in the ordinary sense of the word,” he said. “Military retirement is just a change in status.”

The scope and reach of the Fat Leonard scandal ballooned beyond previous estimates this month when the Navy confirmed it is still investigating about 190 current and retired Navy personnel, mostly officers, to determine what role they may have played in the scandal and whether disciplinary measures are warranted.

The scandal centers around a 350-pound Malaysian businessman named Leonard Glenn Francis — widely known among Navy officers as “Fat Leonard” — and his Singapore-based Glenn Defense Marine Asia company, which provided resupply services to Navy ships in Asia. Francis pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court in 2015 to bribing scores of Navy officers in the 7th Fleet’s West Pacific with millions in cash, gifts, prostitutes and other perks as a means to get inside information on Navy ship movements that he used to charge exorbitant amounts to resupply vessels when in port.

The Justice Department originally gave the Navy a list that contained 440 names of current and former Navy personnel who hadn’t done anything to warrant prosecution under civilian law. Still, their names were turned over to the Navy for another look as to whether they had committed offenses under either the Uniform Code of Military Justice or any standing orders or directives, such as ethics rules, according to Navy officials. As of early November, Navy officials said the list of names was whittled down to 190 who remain under investigation. To date, five have been charged with offenses under the UCMJ and all are waiting to find out when the Navy will take them to court martial. Most likely, officials say, that won’t occur until sometime next year.

Some of those who remain under investigation are retired officers. Court-martialing a retiree is rare, and largely limited to serious crimes, but it remains an option for disciplining retired officers who were involved with Francis’s corruption scheme. While the federal government has charged the severest cases in civilian court, including 21 current or former Navy officials, lesser misdeeds will likely fall to the military justice system, raising the potential for a court-martial.
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News of the Fat Leonard scandal’s growing reach was first reported by the Washington Post in a November story that cited individuals who said former Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert attended several dinners with Francis after meeting him in the late 1990s.
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