SINGAPORE, Nov 20 — Glenn Defence Marine (Asia) Pte, the Singapore-based contractor whose chief executive officer has been charged with bribing US Navy officials, was sued for failing to pay a supplier for marine fuel.

Transocean Oil Pte is seeking US$879,000 (RM2.8 million) and interest after Glenn Defence missed payments on a US$2.2 million settlement agreement, according to a November 11 lawsuit in the Singapore High Court. Transocean provides fuel to naval vessels including from the US, Japan and Singapore.

Two top US Navy admirals have had their access to classified information suspended pending a review of allegations connected to the bribery probe. Glenn Defence CEO Leonard Glenn Francis, a US Navy commander and a Navy Criminal Investigative Service officer have pleaded not guilty to charges of a conspiracy in which Francis provided prostitutes, travel expenses and entertainment in exchange for classified information about ship movements.

Neil Peterson, assistant vice president of global operations at Glenn Defence, declined to comment on the Singapore lawsuit. The company hasn’t filed its defence.

Navinder Singh, a lawyer representing Transocean, declined to comment on the Singapore company’s claim.

Revenue streams

“My USN business is picking up and compounded with new revenue streams that are coming in,” Francis, referring to the US Navy, wrote in a May 17 e-mail to Transocean and cited in the Singapore court papers. “You have my word that I have full intentions to clear these debts as soon as possible.”

Glenn Defence provided US Navy ships with hundreds of millions of dollars in goods and services in at least a dozen countries for more than 25 years, according to the US attorney’s office in San Diego.

Glenn Defence had blamed its delayed payments to Transocean on automatic budget cuts in the US known as sequestration, according to Francis’s e-mail. The company was also impacted by “recent and sudden changes in the Navy’s change of schedule resulting from the Syrian situation which is unanticipated,” according to court papers, citing a September 10 e-mail from Glenn Defence’s financial controller Chris Kirk.

Transocean is seeking an order for a vessel owned by Glenn Defence to be sold to repay the debt owed. The vessel, Glenn Gladiator, was arrested by the Singapore High Court sheriff on September 20.

Glenn Defence in 2011 sued the US claiming a decision to award a Navy port services contract to another company was arbitrary and based on a flawed evaluation. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in June tossed the complaint and upheld an earlier ruling that the deal was lawfully awarded. — Bloomberg