Board of Inquiry for Navy Supply Officer: Discharged Under Honorable Conditions and Authorized Retirement as Commander.

A U.S. Navy Commander received notice of involuntary administrative separation following him implication by a Navy-wide, Fat Leonard scandal whereby a private, husbanding agency operating in the pacific employed the use of bribes, kickbacks, payoffs, illegal gifts and other unlawful benefits to coax Navy ships underway to utilize his ports of call. The Commander, while assigned as a Supply Officer, aboard a Navy vessel many years ago, was alleged to have received gifts from Fat Leonard to include a wrist watch, a set of rims for his personally owned vehicle, comped meals at fancy restaurants and frees stays for him and his family at expensive hotels. The benefits totaled more than $20,000. Because of the magnitude of this misconduct, the Navy initiated separation and the Commander elected his right to a board of injury (BOI). He also elected his right to retain civilian counsel at his own expense and then hired Military (Civilian) Defense Counsel, John L. Calcagni III, to defend him in this matter. Attorney Calcagni represented his client well at the board. Though he did not allow his client to testify, he offered the client’s typewritten unsworn statement accepting responsibility for his past actions. Attorney Calcagni also assembled and offered a mitigation packet regarding his client’s Navy career that highlighted the member’s 30 years of service, promotion to Commander, passage of time, stellar fitness reports, awards, endorsements from multiple Captains and Admirals, and the millions of dollars in retirement benefits the Commander sought to lose if adversely separated. Attorney Calcagni ultimately convinced a board of three Captains to recommend his client’s separation under honorable conditions and with retirement benefits in his current rank and grade. This was a great victory for the grateful Commander.