US Navy Admiral, eight other officers charged in Fat Leonard bribery case

A retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral and eight more high-ranking officer were arrested and charged Tuesday for their involvement in a massive U.S. Navy bribery scandal.

The Glenn Defense Marine Asia (GDMA) bribery case, also referred to as the “Fat Leonard” case after the nickname of GDMA CEO Francis Leonard, is dragging down one U.S. Navy official after another for their roles in disclosing sensitive information about navy operations in exchange for cash, prostitutes, and in one case, Lady Gaga concert tickets.

With the arrest of U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Bruce Loveless and eight other navy officers, the number of persons charged in the case rose to 25. To date, 13 have pleaded guilty while several other cases are pending.

Defendants arrested on Tuesday were brought before the federal court on various charges including bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery, honest services fraud, obstruction of justice and making false statements to federal investigators when confronted about their actions.

Four of the defendants are retired captains: David Newland, 60, of San Antonio, Texas, James Dolan, 58, of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, David Lausman, 62, of The Villages, Florida, and Donald Hornbeck, 56, a resident of the United Kingdom. The other defendants arrested today included: Colonel Enrico Deguzman, 48, of Honolulu, Hawaii, retired Chief Warrant Officer Robert Gorsuch, 48, of Virginia Beach, Virginia retired Rear Admiral Bruce Lovelace, 48, of San Diego, California, active duty Lieutenant Commander Stephen Shedd, 48, of Colorado Springs, Colorado and active duty Commander Mario Herrera, 48, of Helotes, Texas.

According to the indictment, the Navy officers allegedly participated in a bribery scheme with Leonard Francis, in which the officers accepted travel and entertainment expenses, the services of prostitutes and lavish gifts in exchange for helping to steep lucrative contracts to Francis and GDMA and to sabotage competing defense contractors.

The defendants allegedly violated many of their sworn official naval duties, including duties related to the handling of classified information and duties related to the identification and reporting of foreign intelligence threats. According to the indictment, the defendants allegedly worked in concert to recruit new members for the conspiracy, and to keep the conspiracy secret by using fake names and foreign email service providers. According to the indictment, the bribery scheme allegedly cost the Navy – and U.S. taxpayers – tens of millions of dollars.