Navy supply officer charged with patronizing Asian prostitutes

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-navy/2017/10/08/supply-officer-charged-with-patronizing-asian-prostitutes/

Navy supply officer charged with patronizing Asian prostitutes

By: Mark D. Faram

11 hours ago

A 27-year former enlisted sailor who is now a supply corps lieutenant could become the next casualty in the Fat Leonard corruption scandal. Lt. Peter Vapor, a supply officer assigned to Naval Construction Group One in Port Hueneme, California, is the latest in a long line of active-duty and retired Navy personnel to be charged with taking bribes from Leonard “Fat Leonard” Francis, a Malaysian defense contractor who ran the Glenn Defense Marine Asia company in Singapore. Vapor faces a possible court-martial on up to four charges accusing him of patronizing prostitutes, conduct unbecoming, making false official statements and violating lawful orders, Navy officials said. Vapor faced an Article 32 hearing on the charges in a Norfolk Naval Station military courtroom on Oct. 3.

Most of the charges stem from Vapor’s alleged contact with Francis, who was found guilty in U.S. federal court in 2014 of bilking the Navy of $35 million and is in currently prison. Francis is cooperating with federal and Navy authorities as they prosecute others involved. But Navy prosecutors are also charging Vapor with adultery and patronizing prostitutes in charges that make no specific reference to the now-imprisoned contractor. Vapor was assigned to the Singapore-based Naval Logistics Group Western Pacific, Singapore at the time of the alleged misconduct.

All of Vapor’s charges stem from a one-year time frame between September 2012 and September 2013, when Francis was arrested by U.S authorities in a San Diego hotel. During that year, Vapor allegedly accepted gifts “in the form of food and liquor and the services of prostitutes” from Francis, according to Navy court documents. After Francis’ arrest, Vapor allegedly lied to investigators and said he had never met Francis and said he had no knowledge of other U.S. naval officers accepting bribes from Francis, either.
(snip)