Roger That: Navy commander from Chicago area pleads guilty in ‘Fat’ Leonard scandal

A Navy commander from the Chicago area, who has been one of the last holdouts fighting bribery charges in the “Fat” Leonard scandal, pleaded guilty Thursday, according to ABC7 News, in Chicago.

Michael Misiewicz, who is accused of diverting Navy ships to numerous Southeastern Asian ports manned by Navy contractor “Fat” Leonard Francis, pleaded guilty in San Diego federal court to conspiracy to commit bribery and bribery of a public official.

Misiewicz was indicted more than two years ago in San Diego in what is considered the worst corruption case ever in the U.S. Navy. Misiewicz allegedly ran an old-fashioned pay-to-play scheme and was charged along with a Navy investigations special agent and the CEO of a private defense company who allegedly siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars from military contracts.

He is one of 11 defendants in the case and will be the eighth to plead guilty. Corruption charges are pending against a senior Pentagon civilian and a former Navy contracting official living in Singapore. However, federal prosecutors indicate more charges could still be on the horizon as the investigation continues.

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Under fire for questionable use of donations, the Wounded Warrior Project on Wednesday denied allegations that it spends too little on injured troops while paying for resorts, parties and alcohol, according to Military.com.

In its most recent tax filing, the group far outpaced other charities in fundraising in 2014. It spent a whopping $149 million on direct care for wounded troops, while other large national charities have entire budgets worth tens of millions.

But the massive success came with a hefty price tag. According to 2014 tax records, the Wounded Warrior Project spent 34 percent of its total expenses on fundraising while only doling out 60 percent for direct care.

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The New York Times is reporting that Pentagon officials have concluded that hundreds more trainers, advisers and commandos from the United States and its allies will need to be sent to Iraq and Syria in the coming months as the campaign to isolate the Islamic State intensifies.

In meetings with President Obama’s national security team in recent weeks, military officials have told the White House that they believe they have made significant progress in the fight against the Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria, administration officials said. But to deal a lasting blow to the extremist Sunni militancy, also known as ISIS and ISIL, they believe that additional forces will be needed to work with Iraqi, Kurdish and Syrian opposition fighters on the ground in the two countries.

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The Marine Corps helicopter squadron reeling from the recent deaths of 12 colleagues saw its commanding officer removed from his job three days prior to the tragedy because senior officials determined he had failed to keep the unit operating at acceptable standards, Marine Corps Times has learned.

Lt. Col. Edward Pavelka was relieved of command Jan. 11, multiple sources confirmed. On Jan. 14, two CH-53E helicopters from Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 463 disappeared over the Pacific Ocean during a nighttime training mission about two miles north of Hawaii's Oahu island, where the aircraft were based.

This story was originally published January 29, 2016 at 11:15 AM with the headline "Roger That: Navy commander from Chicago area pleads guilty in ‘Fat’ Leonard scandal."