Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicw, a high-profile U.S. Navy Commander, was arrested this week on federal bribery charges. A Cambodian native, Misiewicw was charged with accepting paid travel, services of prostitutes and concert tickets for Lady Gaga in Thailand from a defense contractor from Singapore, all in exchange for classified information, prosecutors said, and reported by Reuters. The defense contractor and a special agent were also arrested.
Misiewicw, who gained considerable media attention for his rise as captain of a U.S. Navy destroyer, was taken into custody and charged along with Leonard Glenn Francis, a defense contractor/CEO of Singapore-based Glenn Defense Marine Asia Ltd, with and John Bertrand Believeau, a special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. All three men are charged with conspiring to commit bribery and could face up to five years in prison if they are convicted.
Misiewicz used a position as deputy operations officer of the U.S. Seventh Fleet to "help schedule visits of U.S. Navy ships to ports where Francis' company provided services including tugboats, security, transportation, supplies, fuel and waste removal," CNN reported.
"In return, Francis provided Misiewicz with paid travel, luxury hotel stays and prostitution services," the U.S. attorney's office said.
The information Misiewicz passed on to Francis was "confidential," meaning its disclosure could cause serious harm to U.S. national security, the U.S. attorney's office said.
A separate complaint alleged that NCIS special agent Beliveau provided Francis with information about a fraud investigation into his company's dealings with the Navy. In exchange of the information, Francis also provided Beliveau with travel, luxury hotels and escorts, news reports said.
Two years ago, a three-admiral board of inquiry formally relieved Captain Owen Honors of his duty for raunchy videos he had produced while on board.
The board said that Honors had 'committed misconduct, failed to demonstrate acceptable qualities of leadership required of an officer in his grade and failed to conform to prescribed standards of military department."
In April, 2012, Honors retired from the Navy.
