Recently, local and international media reported a case where a Malaysian by the name of Glenn Francis Leonard or otherwise known as “Fat Leonard”, owner of Glenn Defence Marine Asia (GDMA) was charged in the USA for his alleged involvement in a corruption scandal involving senior US Navy officers. The international press even dubbed this as the biggest corruption scandal in the US Navy in recent history. It was charged that since 2011, GDMA was awarded contracts worth USD200 million (~RM640 million) by the US Navy.
According to the Star, Fat Leonard’s modus operandi includes diverting Navy’s ships in the region to what was called “pearl ports” such as Phuket in Thailand or Port Klang in Malaysia. The meaning of “pearl ports” as given by the said report is, ports “where it would be easier to fake invoices and jack up charges”.
A search revealed that GDMA does have operations in Port Klang and a company under the Glenn Marine Group is operating a cruise terminal in the port, the Port Klang Cruise Centre.
This clearly shows the failure in managing and enforcing laws in Port Klang resulting in the port becoming a centre for criminal syndicates to conduct fraud.
International media also reported that court documents in USA revealed that the visit of Navy warship USS George Washington to Port Klang in October 2012 was part of Fat Leonard’s deceptive scheme.
This is definitely a slap to the then Defence Minister of Malaysia, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who boasted that the arrival of the US warship was to improve bilateral relations when it is now becoming clearer that the visit was merely part of a fraud scheme orchestrated by Fat Leonard and his cohorts.
As this is a matter of national importance, I would like to ask the government to take immediate actions against my five (5) points below:
- According to GDMA website, the Malaysian Navy or Tentera Laut Diraja Malaysia (TLDM) was also a client of the company. I would like to ask the Minister to inform the House, what sort of contracts were given to GDMA and what is the financial value of those contracts. A thorough investigation and audit have to be conducted against TLDM to ensure that there is no element of corruption, breach of trust and more importantly, breach of military secrets. The investigation report should be tabled to this House.
- The Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) should immediately investigate the then Defence Minister and Deputy Minister to clear their names from any involvement in the scheme to divert USS George Washington to Port Klang and other commercial activities involving the military and Fat Leonard-related companies.
- Since the Defence Ministry also claimed that the visit of USS George Washington in October 2012 brought economic benefits to Malaysia, I would like the government to report how much was paid by USS George Washington in dockage fee, wharfage fee and other payable fees during the five (5) days it docked in Port Klang in October 2012. The government should also inform the House what other economic and financial benefits resulted from the visit and which companies benefited from it.
- The US government has suspended all business activities with GDMA, hence the Malaysian government should immediately do the same until a thorough investigation is done, and the report tabled to the public.
- The Fat Leonard scandal is a crisis as it involved breaches in military activities as well as in the governance of our ports. In fact, one of the directors of Glenn Defense Marine and Glenn Marine Group is a former chief of the Malaysian armed forces. Hence, I ask the government to publish a white paper providing a thorough explanation of the Fat Leonard scandal as well as outcomes of the investigations done.