
Former senior MSC official gets 5-year prison term
The U.S. Department of
Justice reports that Xavier Fernando Monroy, 65, a former Director of
Operations of the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command (MSC) Office in Busan,
South Korea, was sentenced Friday 2 Dec to five years in prison for his role in a
bribery conspiracy and lying to federal investigators.
According to court
documents and evidence presented at trial, Monroy , of Brentwood, New York, engaged in a conspiracy to commit bribery
with the owner of DK
Marine, a South Korea-based company that provided services to the Navy, as well as
with a former MSC captain, to steer U.S. Navy business to DK Marine.
From 2011 to 2014,
Monroy used his position of influence as a public official to benefit his
co-conspirator, including by steering over $3.3 million in husbanding services
contracts for U.S. military ships to DK Marine. Husbanding service providers
supply items or services for ships such as water ferry and taxi services,
ground transportation and other logistical requirements.
Evidence at trial also proved that Monroy provided
a co-conspirator with confidential and other proprietary internal U.S. Navy
information. In exchange for
these benefits, the co-conspirator paid bribes to Monroy, including thousands
of dollars in cash, personal travel expenses, meals and alcoholic beverages,
and prostitution services. Additionally, during a voluntary interview in July
2019, Monroy repeatedly lied to special agents of the Defense Criminal
Investigative Service (DCIS) and Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS)
when they confronted him about his illegal conduct.
In August 2022, a
federal jury in the District of Columbia convicted
Monroy of conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, and making false
statements.
The DCIS and NCIS
investigated the case.