“Fat Leonard” Francis
When it appeared that the decade-long US Navy corruption scandal focused on Leonard Glenn Francis, known as “Fat Leonard,” was winding down, the saga takes a new turn. The Malaysian businessman, who confessed to directing a massive bribery scandal of US Navy officers, has cut off his ankle bracelet and fled from his San Diego home and is now reportedly on the run.
It comes three weeks before he was due for sentencing.
Francis, 57, was arrested in San Diego in 2013 and pleaded guilty in 2015 to offering $500,000 in bribes to officers after spending years plying the Navy with gifts, cash, trips and prostitutes’ in exchange for favorable contracts and secret information.
The US Justice Department said the scheme was a colossal fraud that cost the Navy tens of millions of dollars.
Dozens of Navy officials have been ensnared in the case. According to the Navy Times, twenty-nine people, mostly Navy officials, have pleaded guilty to helping Francis including providing classified ship schedules in exchange for extravagant outings in South Asia with prostitutes and meals with tabs totaling more than $20,000. The trial of the last five defendants recently wrapped up in San Diego.
Surely at least one journalist has been building a book on this case, and looking forward to final draft and publication at long last. All that was needed for completion and epilog was a sentence and maybe first assigned penitentiary.
Not so fast. 🙂