Former Military Sealift Command Director Sentenced to Prison for Bribery and Lying to Investigators

The former Director of Operations of the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command (MSC) office in Busan, South Korea, was sentenced last week 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, Xavier Fernando Monroy, 65, 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 U.S. 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, the co-conspirator paid bribes to Monroy, including thousands of dollars in cash, personal travel expenses, meals and alcoholic beverages, and prostitutes.

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. 

A federal jury in the District of Columbia convicted Monroy of conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, and making false statements in August 2022.

The case was investigated by DCIS and NCIS.

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