Leonard Glenn Francis, known as Fat Leonard, who was the most powerful contractor for the US Navy for 30 years, said he was also denied bail by the American courts based on his three-year jail sentence for possession of firearms in Penang as a 21-year-old in 1989.
In 2013, he was arrested at a San Diego hotel in a sting operation and was first held at the Metropolitan Correction Centre there.
Two years later, he pleaded guilty but is still awaiting sentencing.
Francis admitted to using his US Navy contacts, including ship captains, to obtain classified information and to defraud the government of tens of millions of dollars by steering ships to specific ports in the Pacific and falsifying service charges.
Describing his imprisonment in the US, he said: “As soon as you get there, they strip you down, chain your legs and handcuff you.
“Not that I have not been incarcerated before, but here you are treated like an animal once inside.
“I was denied bail for what happened more than 30 years ago in Penang, which was irrelevant,” he told US journalist Tom Wright in the final part of his nine-episode podcast uploaded on Spotify on Wednesday.
Francis is a star witness for the US Department of Justice (DoJ) in cases involving six navy officers.
He is under house arrest in San Diego, with 24-hour surveillance after being diagnosed with kidney cancer.
He described as “betrayal” all the top officers who had benefited from his deals as many of them were now free, with a few having retired honourably, although he had submitted the evidence that incriminated them.
“I feel completely betrayed. They asked me to name all those involved or face 50 years in jail and I spilled the beans.
“I gave them about 40 names. I told basically how deep the bribery was in the US Navy. It basically shook the foundation of the navy.
“I felt very upset because just look at what I am going through. Look at what has happened. My entire life has been destroyed. My businesses, my family, everything is gone, you know, being hit like a tsunami.
“I had over 2,800 staff working for me in over 30 countries and everything folded. So many innocent people lost their jobs, many families were destroyed. This was deliberate financial ruin brought upon me,” he said.
Francis said about 30 sailors had been indicted, with half of them sentenced to jail, but many senior officers he had named got off with just a slap on their wrists.
He said the DoJ had his phones and servers which held records of all his dealings with the senior officers involved and still many got away.
“Some were given just a reprimand or forced to retire, but no criminal action was taken.
“They are only discounting my evidence linking the senior leadership. But they are not discounting the evidence involving the lower-rank guys.
“One four-star admiral I named was let off scot-free just because he was appointed by the president and the Senate. There is no way they are going to embarrass the government by indicting him. It would have been a humiliation.”
According to reports, the admiral sits on the board of the defence contractors and is a senior fellow at the National Defence University.
Francis, who did not appear to show any remorse, said he had not given up despite his illness.
“I have a strong will to live, I have talent and I can build another business empire. I have done it before and it all came crumbling down. But it’s all not over for me,” he said in his parting shot.
In his concluding remarks, Wright said the US Navy is facing another port services scandal, which could be bigger than the one involving Francis.
According to documents released last month, Frank Rafaraci, the chief executive officer of defence contracting firm Multinational Logistics Services, has been accused of corrupting navy personnel in order to overcharge the service by at least US$50 million (RM205 million).