US Navy’s bribery scandal grows

Two US Navy admirals are under investigation as part of a growing bribery scandal involving Navy officials and a military contractor.

According to a statement released by the US Navy, the service’s director of intelligence operations, Rear Adm. Bruce F. Loveless, and the Navy’s top intelligence officer, Vice Adm. Ted Branch, were placed on temporary leave on Friday and their access to classified material was suspended.

The admirals are now being investigated over their ties to a military contractor, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, which provides port services for US ships in Southeast Asia.

Three Navy officials, including a senior Naval Criminal Investigative Service agent, have already been arrested for their ties to the scandal.

The chief executive of Singapore-based Glenn Defense Marine Asia, Leonard Glenn Francis, was arrested in September over charges that he bribed Navy officers with prostitutes and cash in order to gain access to classified and privileged information.

US Navy officials say they expect the bribery scandal to grow swiftly.

“We do believe that other naval officers will likely be implicated in this scandal,” Rear Adm. John F. Kirby, the service’s chief spokesman, told The Washington Post.

The implication of two of the Navy’s senior intelligence officials, who are responsible for protecting the secrets of one of the service branches of the US military, in the scandal has raised great concerns over whether US national security was compromised in exchange for bribes.

According to The Washington Post, the scandal is the US Navy’s worst since the 1991 Tailhook scandal, when over 100 US Navy and Marine Corps aviation officers sexually assaulted scores of women and men.