This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Crime

  • A GDMA Scandal “Scorecard”

    For anyone interested, here’s a short list of those who’ve been named as involved in the Glenn Defense Marine Asia, Ltd – AKA GDMA – scandal.

    CDR Jose Luis Sanchez, USN – pleaded guilty earlier this month to bribery charges. He was the subject of yesterday’s TAH article regarding the GDMA scandal.

    John Bertrand Beliveau II, NCIS Supervisory Special Agent – pleaded guilty to bribery and conspiracy charges in December 2013. Beliveau admitted to providing GDMA information on NCIS investigations into their business dealings.

    PO1 Daniel Layug, USN – pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery charges in May 2014. Layug was providing classified ship movement schedules to GDMA officials as well as competitor pricing information.

    Alex Wisidagama – former executive at GDMA and cousin of the GDMA CEO, Leonard Glenn Francis, pleaded guilty in May 2014 to participating in a scheme whereby GDMA grossly overcharged the US Navy for costs associated with services performed during port calls. In one such visit – by the USS Mustin to Laem Chabang, Thailand, in 2011 – the overcharges appear to have totaled $1.5M for a single port call.

    Edmond A. Aruffo, LCDR, USN (Retired) – pleaded guilty in July 2014 to participating in GDMA’s scheme to overcharge grossly the USN for costs associated port calls.

    So far, two other individuals – Leonard Glenn Francis, CEO of GDMA, and CDR Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz, USN, have submitted and maintained “not guilty” pleas to bribery and conspiracy charges associated with the scandal.  Both are accused of bribery and conspiracy.  (Interestingly, Misiewicz is a former CO of the USS Mustin.)  He was indicted on seven additional charges recently – after CDR Sanchez pleaded guilty.

    Stay tuned.  This one continues to seem . . . interesting.

  • Teen who beat vet to death pleaded guilty

    Teen who beat vet to death pleaded guilty

    We talked about the murderer, Kenan Adams-Kinard, who beat 89-year-old Delbert Belton, an Okinawa veterans to death in August 2013. KHQ reports that he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in a Spokane courtroom yesterday;

    Last week, prosecutors met with members of the Kinard family to discuss the plea deal, which calls for Kinard to serve 20-27 years. The minimum sentence for pleading to the charge of murder is 20 years. If Kinard receives the minimum sentence, he would be 37-years-old when released.

    […]

    As for the second suspect in the case, Demetrius Glenn, his trial is still scheduled to begin on January 12, 2015, however following Kinard’s change of plea, that trial date could be pushed back.

    The prosecutor dropped robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery charges in exchange for the plea.

    Fox News adds;

    Spokane County Prosecutor Larry Haskell said the Belton family supported the plea agreement.

    He declined to say if the plea deal would require Adams-Kinard to testify against Glenn.

  • Gang member tests security of Baltimore police station

    The Washington Times reports that a member of the Black Guerilla Family walked into a Baltimore police with a loaded .22 pistol in order to test their security;

    Baltimore police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts said the 29-year-old man walked into the Northeastern District station “fully armed and loaded with drugs on him,” The Baltimore Sun reported.

    […]

    Police said the man was enlisted by BGF to test police security for allegedly betraying the gang in the past.

    “He did not go in there on his free will. This person had very little option, according to his statement, which lends credibility to what a dire situation this was,” Deputy Police Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez said.

    The Black Guerilla Family has been around for more than forty years and has a fairly long history of violence including their involvement in the murder of Huey Newton in 1989. They had ties to the Black Liberation Army, Symbionese Liberation Army, and Weather Underground, for those of you who remember them from the 60s. It was founded in the San Quentin prison.

    Mr. Jason Armstrong, the sap, was arrested on weapons and drug charges.

  • Navy Commander Pleads Guilty to Accepting Bribes

    Yesterday, CDR Jose Luis Sanchez pleaded guilty in Federal court to the crime of accepting bribes. He was the fifth individual and second member of the US Navy to plead guilty in connection with the Glenn Defense Marine Asia, Ltd. (AKA GDMA) scandal.  Prosecutors have alleged that this scandal was based on insider information and allowed GDMA to overbill the US Navy for support for years, costing Uncle Sam at least $20 million.

    Per this Fox News article,

    Sanchez admitted taking bribes valued between $30,000 and $120,000 from 2009 to 2013, including a prostitute, $7,500 to travel from Asia to the United States and five days at Singapore’s luxury Shangri-La Hotel, according to a 24-page plea agreement. In exchange, he provided classified Navy ship and submarine schedules and other internal information to Leonard Glenn Francis, chief executive of a Singapore-based company that provided services to vessels at ports.

    The other member of the USN to plead guilty so far – Petty Officer (precise rank not specified) Daniel Layug – also admitted to providing classified Navy shipping schedules to Francis.

    Francis – termed “Fat Leonard” by his confidants – was previously arrested (Sep 2013) on charges connected to the scandal. He has pleaded not guilty.

    Sanchez was arrested as part of the same bribery scandal for which CDR(P) Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz – who Jonn’s previously written about here at TAH – was arrested about 16 months ago. Misiewicz was arrested on charges related to his own separate dealings with Leonard.  After being arrested, Misiewicz pleaded not guilty charges of conspiracy to commit bribery.

    Sanchez’s guilty plea yesterday included a five-page addendum that remains under seal. Perhaps coincidentally, CDR Misiewicz was indicted yesterday on seven (7) additional counts related to the scandal.  It does not appear that he’s yet entered a plea regarding the new charges against him.

    Sanchez is facing a maximum of 20 years in Federal prison. He’s currently out on bail awaiting sentencing. He apparently needs his own assets to pay his lawyers, so he’s convinced his mother and sister to back his bail bond with their assets.

    Personally, I hope the courts absolutely body-slam every one of these guys damned hard when they’re convicted.  To wit:   a minimum of 5 or 7 years hard time for each, and preferably closer to the max sentences allowed under law.

    That particularly goes for any military or Federal civilian personnel involved.  These people were in positions of public trust; they betrayed that trust for a pittance. I think each needs at least 5 years – and preferably more – to reflect on both their sh!tbaggery and the pittance they received for selling-out Uncle Sam’s interests.

    Was it worth it, assholes? Was it?

    Don’t answer right away. You can give us your answer when you get out of prison – if you ever do.

    It’s OK by me if you die behind bars. But that’s not my call.

  • Scott Losey, county Veterans’ Affairs director shakes down vets

    Calhoun County, Michigan, Veteran’s Affairs director, Scott Losey resigned from that job, according to WOOD-TV when it was discovered that he was shaking down veterans for doing his job;

    In one email, dated Oct. 20, 2011, Scott Losey wrote about the hard work he’d done at his own home for one veteran.

    “We will discuss a gentleman’s agreement to compensate for my personal time. I have worked cases for veterans who reside outside Calhoun County over the past couple of years with the same kind of agreement. I will not gouge you like your Social Security lawyer. Perhaps 7 to 10 percent is typically the agreement. I have had veterans screw me over big time as well. Does this sound cool?”

    “Also, where is my Christmas present,” Losey wrote in all capital letters in one email in December 2009. “Just so you know, my wife and I like to go out every once in a while for dinner…”

    Dickhead POS. I hope it was worth it for him. He should also start pedaling his ass out of town.

    Thanks to UpNorth for the link.

  • WV State Police catch cop shooters

    WV State Police catch cop shooters

    Campbells

    A father-son team was arrested by West Virginia State Police yesterday after they shot two Lewisville police officers, Lt. Jeromy Dove and Patrolman Nicholas Sams, during a traffic stop;

    Both men were arrested on Thursday following a traffic stop on Interstate 64. According to Baylous, when officers pulled over a Chevrolet SUV with stolen tag a red Chevrolet truck pulled over as well.

    “As the officers were conducting the traffic stop, the driver of the red truck pulled a handgun and shot at both officers. Both officers were wounded. One of the officers was able to respond to the threat with his department issued firearm, resulting in the suspect being wounded in the leg. The driver of the white SUV left the scene,” says Baylous. “The shooting suspect went over the hillside and was eventually taken into custody by the Greenbrier County Sheriff’s Department. The other suspect drove behind a guardrail on the interstate and hid for a short amount of time. Eventually, he walked up to the Interstate and turned himself into law enforcement without incident.”

    The two were identified as father and son Edward and Eric Campbell from Texas. Underneath a mattress in the bed of the pickup, police found two bodies, Jerome Faulkner, 73, and his wife Dora, 62, from Oak Hill, NC. They were killed in a “random act of violence” according to the police.

    The two officers weren’t seriously wounded and are in good condition. Eric, on the other hand, looks as if he may have learned not to shoot at police officers.

  • Police under fire

    Two LA police officers were attacked in a manner similar to the two NYPD officers who were killed a few days ago according to KTLA;

    The officers from the LAPD’s 77th Division were responding to an unrelated radio call Sunday around 9:30 p.m. on Hoover Street near 66th Street (map) when two men allegedly opened fire on their patrol car, according to Los Angeles Police Department Detective Megan Aguilar.

    Several rounds were shot in the direction of the officers, LAPD Capt. Lillian Carranza said.

    “This was a completely unprovoked attack,” she added.

    One of the officers returned fire toward the alleged gunmen, but it was not immediately clear whether either was hit.

    Neither officer was injured.

    On the other side of the country, in Durham, North Carolina, another officer narrowly escaped injury in the same manner, according to ABC11;

    A department spokesperson said Officer J.T. West was sitting in his marked patrol car working on a report when he saw two suspicious men coming up from behind his car near an abandoned apartment building.

    West got out of his car to speak to the men, but before he could say a word, one of them pulled a handgun from his waistband and fired six shots at the officer. One of the bullets struck the police vehicle.

    West returned fire, getting off two shots as he ran for cover across the street. West dove behind a staircase in the abandoned apartment complex, injuring his wrist as he fell.

    West called for backup, and a police dog was called in to track the two suspects. The track ended on South Alston Street with no sign of the men.

    Police say they don’t know if West’s bullets hit the gunman or the man with him. Area hospitals have been put on alert.

    Whether it’s true or not, it seems to me that these gunman think that they have the tacit approval of politicians, if not by words, then by the absence of words. The New York Police Department expressed their displeasure with the politicians by turning their backs on their Mayor DeBlasio when he arrived two hours late for the funeral of Rafael Ramos yesterday – mainly because DeBlasio seems more concerned about protesters than the police.

    I’m not sure that I support that the officers turned their backs on the mayor. I mean, I would turn my back on him, but for the police to do it, that seems like a bridge too far. But that’s my opinion.

    Anyway, I hope those of you who wear the blue watch your back, because it doesn’t look like any one else will watch it for you.

  • MD VA’s Clark sentenced for fraud

    We’ve discussed David Clark a few times over the past few years. He was the official at the Maryland Department of Veterans’ Affairs who was deputy chief for claims there and, as such, submitted claims for himself and his cronies. The Stars & Stripes reports that he was sentenced to a year in the pound;

    David Clark, 68, of Hydes, Md., was given a one-year sentence Dec. 5 for obtaining VA compensation for himself and at least 17 others by claiming they had been diagnosed with diabetes following Agent Orange exposure during the Vietnam War, the office said in a press release.

    […]

    “Clark fraudulently obtained VA compensation for himself and at least 17 others, by submitting false documents to the VA purporting to show that the claimants had been diagnosed with diabetes, and in some cases that the claimants had served in Vietnam when they had not,” the U.S. attorney’s office said in the release.

    In May, six other veterans pleaded guilty to receiving over $500,000 as part of the scheme.

    The ruse included letters Clark forged using the names and addresses of real doctors. The letters claimed earlier diagnoses of Type II diabetes, which entitle veterans to lump-sum payments.

    “The letters also stated that the claimants were currently taking insulin, which increased the amount of compensation the VA paid the claimant,” the attorney’s office said.

    He also counterfeited Defense Department forms to make it appear the veterans had served in the Vietnam War and had received numerous awards. Clark falsely claimed he received a Purple Heart.

    I wonder how many real veterans with real problems in Maryland had to wait in line behind these criminals. I also wonder what kind of system would allow a VA official to approve his own claim. A year in prison is going too easy on this thief. The article claims that he has to pay back the money he stole, but, that’s hardly enough punishment, either. Something really painful needs to happen to him – something administered by Maryland veterans.

    The Baltimore Sun said his damages to the system were pretty costly;

    According to a federal indictment made public Wednesday, David Clark secured $1.4 million in fraudulent payouts over 16 years. An Army veteran, Clark rose to deputy chief of claims at the state agency before retiring in 2011.