A U.S. Navy senior investigator plans to plead guilty to bribery charges tied to a massive scheme involving an Asian defense contractor accused of overbilling the Pentagon millions of dollars, his lawyer said Thursday.
John Beliveau will plead guilty to bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery at a hearing Tuesday in federal court in San Diego, his attorney Jan Ronis said.
Beliveau was a supervisory agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. He's accused of accepting luxury travel and prostitution services in exchange for tipping off defense contractor Leonard Glenn Francis about a Navy probe into allegations his firm was overbilling the military.
The guilty plea will be the first for prosecutors in the case rocking the Navy.
Ronis declined to say whether his client has agreed to cooperate with investigators in the expanding probe that has resulted in the arrests of several people, including Francis and two Navy captains.
Prosecutors declined to comment on Beliveau's plea.
According to a criminal complaint, Beliveau, 44, kept Francis, the CEO of Singapore-based Glenn Defense Marine Asia Ltd., or GDMA, abreast of the bribery probe and advised him on how to respond in exchange for such things as prostitution services.
The complaint alleges GDMA overcharged the Navy millions of dollars for fuel, food and other services it provided, and invented tariffs by using phony port authorities.
Prosecutors say Francis bribed Navy commanders to move Navy vessels like chess pieces, diverting aircraft carriers, destroyers and other ships to Asian ports with lax oversight where GDMA could inflate costs.
Francis, 49, was arrested in San Diego in September. He has pleaded not guilty.
