CALIFORNIA – A citizen of Singapore formerly employed by Glenn Defense Marine Asia or GDMA, plead guilty Tuesday to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States for his role in a scheme to over bill the Navy for services.
These services included tugboat services; paying port authority and customs fees; furnishing security and transportation; supplying provision, fuel and water and removing trash and collecting liquid waste, federal officials said.
Alex Wisidagama’s plea is the second in an expanding and ongoing investigation into acts of alleged fraud and bribery committed by GDMA and several U.S. Navy officers and personnel into ship husbanding services, federal authorities said.
Wisidagama, who was arrested in San Diego, Calif., on Sept. 16, 2013, served as the general manager of global government contracts for GDMA, which was owned and operated by his cousin, Leonard Glenn Francis .
The company was a multi-national corporation with headquarters in Singapore and operating locations in other countries, including Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Korea, India, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Australia, Philippines, Sri Lanka and the United States.
Wisidagama will be sentenced in June.
In his plea agreement, Wisidagama admitted to conspiring to defraud the U.S. Navy in different ways:
- Wisidagama and other GDMA employees generated bills charging the U.S. Navy for port tariffs that were far greater than the tariffs that GDMA actually paid.
- In some cases, Wisidagama and others created fictitious port authorities for ports visited by U.S. Navy ships, and in other cases, Wisidagama and GDMA created fake invoices from legitimate port authorities purporting to bill the U.S. Navy at inflated tariff rates.
- Wisidagama and GDMA also over billed the U.S. Navy for fuel by creating fraudulent invoices which represented that GDMA acquired fuel at the same cost that it charged the U.S. Navy when in fact GDMA sold the fuel to the U.S. Navy for far more than it actually paid.
- Wisidagama and GDMA also defrauded the U.S. Navy on the provision of incidental items by creating fake price quotes purportedly from other vendors to make it appear that the other vendors’ offering prices were greater than GDMA’s prices.
Officials said Wisidagama is the second defendant to plead guilty as part of this ongoing investigation.
On Dec. 17, 2013, federal officials said the former Naval Criminal Investigative Service Supervisory Special Agent John Bertrand Beliveau Jr. pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery after admitting to providing Francis with sensitive law enforcement information in exchange for such things as cash, travel accommodations, lavish dinners, and prostitutes.
In addition to Beliveau and Wisidagama, Francis and U.S. Navy Commanders Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz and Jose Luis Sanchez have been charged as part of this bribery and fraud scheme.
The charges against Misiewicz, Sanchez and Francis are presumed innocent until proven guilty.