A Cambodian-American US Navy commander plead guilty to bribery charges in US Federal Court last week after officials accused him of accepting money and concert tickets, among other gifts, from a private defense company in exchange for sensitive information about the movements of Navy ships, according to a statement released by the US Navy last week. Glenn Defense Marine, the company in question, runs resupply services at a number of ports across Asia.
Cmdr. Michael Misiewicz, whose name was Vannak Khem before he was adopted as a 6-year-old Kandal province native by an American working at the US Embassy in Phnom Penh, allegedly received money, prostitutes, expense-paid trips and Lady Gaga concert tickets for routing and sometimes rerouting Navy ships to ports with services run by the Singapore-based contracting company. Glenn Defense Marine would then overcharge the Navy for refueling and other services.
The company ended up making over $20 million in profits from working with a number of Navy officials and officers. Mr. Misiewicz is only the eighth person to plead guilty in a case where over 100 Navy servicemen, including high ranking officers, are being investigated. Mr. Misiewicz was arrested in 2013 and has been fighting the charges since then. But on Thursday night, he decided to change his plea.
“He is extremely sorry for the harm he has caused to his family, the United States Navy and this great country,” his attorney wrote in a statement. The 48-year-old graduate of the Naval Academy in Annapolis served as deputy director of operations for the Navy’s 7th Fleet in 2011 and 2012, a position which is in charge of determining which ports ships dock in and how long they stay.
The company provided prostitutes to Mr. Misiewicz in a number of cities across Asia, and gave his family gifts as well.
He came back to Cambodia for the first time in 2010, when the naval ship he was commanding docked in Sihanoukville.