A now-retired Navy rear admiral who last served as U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s director of operations on Oahu has been censured by the secretary of the Navy for “repeatedly and improperly” soliciting and accepting gifts from Glenn Defense Marine Asia in the wide-ranging “Fat Leonard” scandal.
Mark Montgomery provided information to and took action to financially benefit Glenn Defense between 2007 and 2009 when he commanded Destroyer Squadron 15 in the Western Pacific, according to a Navy statement detailing Secretary Richard Spencer’s censure.
The Navy said the censure letter, issued Wednesday, was not available Monday because it was still being reviewed for possible redactions before being released.
Montgomery, who lives in Virginia, had been nominated by the Trump administration to be an assistant administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, but the White House said in a release Nov. 15 that the nomination was withdrawn.
Montgomery was feted for “32 years of honorable Naval service” at a retirement ceremony aboard the Battleship Missouri Memorial on Aug. 18, 2017, according to a Navy-produced news story.
Adm. Harry Harris, then the commander of Indo-Pacific Command, presented Montgomery with the
Defense Distinguished
Service Medal.
In light of the connection between the gifts and actions he took, Montgomery committed graft, Spencer determined. In 2018 the retired rear admiral made a false official statement “intending to mislead” the Consolidated Disposition Authority, the Navy said.
The authority was created by the Navy in 2014 to review Glenn Defense cases forwarded by the Justice
Department that it declined to prosecute in the federal court system.
Spencer said in the statement that Montgomery disregarded Navy ethical standards “and abused his position to benefit himself.”
Leonard Glenn Francis, a 350-pound defense contractor and Malaysian national, pleaded guilty in 2015 to bribery and fraud charges over the decade-long conspiracy involving Glenn Defense, his company, which provided ship services to the U.S. Navy in Southeast Asia.
Dozens of former Navy
officers and others are
accused of using their influence to steer ships to Glenn Defense-controlled ports and otherwise advance Francis’ interests.
Earlier this month the Justice Department said 33 defendants had been charged and 22 pleaded guilty in the scandal that saw Francis ply top-ranking Navy officials with prostitutes, money and lavish parties.