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U.S. navy commander sentenced to 78-month imprisonment for bribery

Xinhua, April 30, 2016 Adjust font size:

Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz, a U.S. navy commander, was sentenced to 78 months in prison on Friday for accepting paid travel, sex service and concert tickets from a Malaysian defense contractor in exchange for classified information.

During a hearing in U.S. District Court, the 48-year-old commander was also ordered to pay 100,000 dollars in fines and forfeit 95,000 dollars in proceeds from the fraud scheme, according to the court documents.

Misiewicz was accused of taking free treatments from Malaysian businessman Leonard Glenn Francis, such as worldwide travel, entertainment, luxury hotel stays, prostitutes and five tickets to a Lady Gaga concert in Thailand in 2012.

The commander pleaded guilty of providing Francis from January 2011 to September 2013 with classified movement schedules of the USS George Washington Carrier Strike Group and other ships and helping arrange visits by U.S. navy vessels to the ports where Francis' Singapore-based company had submitted fake contractor bids.

He also admitted to having tried to cover up the briberies by using secret and temporary email accounts to contact Francis.

The classified information he revealed is worthy of millions of dollars, according to the court document.

Misiewicz is the latest U.S. navy officer charged with involvement in one of the worst bribery scandals of the U.S. navy.

Ten people have been accused in the bribery case and nine of them have pleaded guilty, including three retired admirals. Endi