Another Navy Official Charged in Bribery Case

A federal criminal complaint unsealed in San Diego on Thursday charges a fourth Navy officer with accepting cash, luxury travel and consumer electronics from a foreign defense contractor in exchange for classified and internal U.S. maritime military information.

Petty Officer First Class Dan Layug of Yokosuka, Japan, was arrested Wednesday in San Diego by agents with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and Defense Criminal Investigative Service.

During Layug's initial appearance in federal court, U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Crawford imposed a $100,000 bond on him and ordered that he be subject to GPS monitoring.

According to the complaint, Layug, 27, received bribes in return for sending sensitive U.S. Navy information to employees of Glenn Defense Marine Asia. The company's CEO, 49-year-old Leonard Glenn Francis, has been charged with conspiring to bribe Navy officials, and fellow GDMA executive Alex Wisidagama, 40, pleaded guilty last month to defrauding the Navy.

Two other senior Navy officers -- Cmdrs. Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz, 46, and 41-year-old Jose Luis Sanchez -- were charged separately with bribery conspiracies involving Francis and have pleaded not guilty.

In December, NCIS Agent John Bertrand Beliveau II pleaded guilty to bribery charges for regularly tipping off Francis to the status of the government's investigation into GDMA.

According to the complaint, Layug, who enlisted in the Navy in September 2006, worked secretly on behalf of GDMA by providing classified ship schedules and other sensitive Navy information in exchange for cash, travel expenses, and consumer electronics.

Layug allegedly used his position as a logistics specialist at a U.S. Navy facility in Yokosuka, Japan, to gain access to U.S. Navy ship schedules -- some of them classified -- along with other internal information, and provided the information to GDMA's vice president of global operations.

In exchange, prosecutors allege, GDMA provided Layug with regular payments, some of which were delivered in cash. The complaint alleges that on May 21, 2012, the vice president of global operations instructed a GDMA accountant that "at the end of each month, we will be providing an allowance to Mr. Dan Layug. Total of U.S. $1,000. You may pay him the equivalent in Yen. He will come by the office at the end of each month to see you."

Court records allege that, in addition to his monthly "allowance," Layug sought consumer electronics from GDMA. In an email on March 9, 2012, Layug asked the vice president of global operations what were "the chances" of his getting a new iPad, adding, "Please let me know."

In another email exchange last May, Layug asked the vice president of global operations for a "bucket list" of items, including a high-end camera, an iPhone5, a Samsung S4 cellphone and an iPad Mini. Layug later stated in an email, "The camera is awesome bro! Thanks a lot! Been a while since I had a new gadget!"

In addition to consumer electronics, GDMA allegedly provided Layug and his friends with rooms at luxury hotels throughout Asia.

Layug allegedly undertook steps to conceal his bribery relationship with GDMA by, among other things, describing classified ship itineraries by using the code word "golf schedules" and opening, in the name of his infant daughter, a bank account into which he deposited portions of his "allowance."

—City News Service