‘Fat Leonard’ sentenced to 15 years after being brought back from Venezuela in swap
 |
| ‘Fat Leonard’ to be sentenced after becoming fugitive in Venezuela – NBC 7 San Diego |
Summary
Here's an updated summary of the "Fat Leonard" scandal and its resolution:
Sentencing & Penalties:
- Leonard Francis received 15 years in prison (more than prosecutors' 12-year recommendation)
- Ordered to pay $20 million in restitution
- Still owes much of the $35+ million he stole from the Navy
Scope of the Scandal:
- One of the biggest bribery cases in U.S. military history
- Francis bribed Navy officers with over $500,000 in cash, luxury goods, and prostitutes
- Officers redirected aircraft carriers to his ports and leaked classified information
- Bilked Navy of at least $35 million through his company Glenn Defense Marine Asia
Key Developments:
1. Escape & Return
- Cut GPS monitor and fled to Venezuela in 2022 while on house arrest
- Captured trying to reach Russia
- Returned to U.S. in prisoner swap for Maduro ally Alex Saab
2. Prosecutorial Issues
- Multiple felony convictions reduced to misdemeanors
- Lead prosecutor committed "flagrant misconduct" by withholding evidence
- Judge vacated several convictions
- Prosecutors admitted to "serious issues"
3. Asset Recovery Problems
- Most of stolen funds remain unrecovered
- Francis had opportunity to hide assets during first year after arrest
- Will be deported after serving sentence, complicating recovery efforts
The case represents both a massive corruption scheme and significant failures in prosecution and supervision, with questions remaining about hidden assets and limited accountability for prosecutorial misconduct.
‘Fat Leonard' sentenced in Navy bribery scandal almost 9 years after pleading guilty
Military contractor Leonard Glenn "Fat Leonard" Francis was sentenced on Tuesday to 15 years in prison and was ordered to pay $20 million restitution, nearly nine years after pleading guilty to bribing Navy officials in a wide-ranging corruption scheme.
Prosecutors said back in January that they were seeking to have Francis sentenced on the charges he pleaded to in January of 2015 before possibly filing new charges in connection with his alleged flight from the country.
Francis was awaiting sentencing when officials say he cut off a GPS monitor he was required to wear and disappeared from his San Diego house arrest in September of 2022. He was arrested in Venezuela and brought back to the United States following a prisoner exchange between the two countries.
One of the biggest bribery investigations in U.S. military history
The contractor was at the center of one of the biggest bribery investigations in U.S. military history led to the conviction and sentencing of nearly two dozen Navy officials, defense contractors and others on various fraud and corruption charges.
Francis pleaded guilty to bribing Navy officers with fancy hotel stays, meals and prostitutes in exchange for classified information, persuading them to direct aircraft carriers to ports he controlled so they could be resupplied by his Singapore-based husbanding company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia. He also admitted overcharging the U.S. military for those services in an amount exceeding $35 million.
An enigmatic figure, Francis owned and operated his family’s ship servicing business, Singapore-based Glenn Defense Marine Asia Ltd. or GDMA, which supplied food, water and fuel to vessels. The Malaysian defense contractor was a key contact for U.S. Navy ships at ports across Asia for more than two decades. During that time he wooed naval officers with Kobe beef, expensive cigars, concert tickets and wild sex parties at luxury hotels from Thailand to the Philippines.
In exchange, the officers, including the first active-duty admiral to be convicted of a federal crime, concealed the scheme in which Francis would overcharge for supplying ships or charge for fake services at ports he controlled in Southeast Asia. The officers passed him classified information and even went so far as redirecting military vessels to ports that were lucrative for his Singapore-based ship servicing company.
In a federal sting, Francis was lured to San Diego on false pretenses and arrested at a hotel in September 2013. He pleaded guilty in 2015, admitting that he had offered more than $500,000 in cash bribes to Navy officials, defense contractors and others. Prosecutors say he bilked the Navy out of at least $35 million. As part of his plea deal, he cooperated with the investigation leading to the Navy convictions. He faced up to 25 years in prison.
While awaiting sentencing, Francis was hospitalized and treated for renal cancer and other medical issues. After leaving the hospital, he was allowed to stay out of jail at a rental home, on house arrest with a GPS ankle monitor and security guards.
But three weeks before his scheduled sentencing in September 2022, he snipped off his monitor and made a brazen escape, setting off an international search. Officials said he fled to Mexico, made his way to Cuba and eventually got to Venezuela.
Fat Leonard's arrest
He was arrested more than two weeks after his disappearance — caught before he boarded a flight at the Simon Bolivar International Airport outside Caracas. Venezuelan officials said he intended to reach Russia.
In an exchange, the U.S. freed a close ally of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in exchange for the release of 10 Americans imprisoned in Venezuela and for Francis' extradition.
Francis' escape wasn't the only prosecution stumble.
The cases were handled by the U.S. attorney’s office in an effort to be independent of the military justice system. But they have came under scrutiny.
Earlier, the felony convictions of four former Navy officers were vacated following allegations of prosecutorial misconduct. U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino agreed to allow them to plead guilty to a misdemeanor and pay a $100 fine each.
Last year Sammartino had ruled that the lead federal prosecutor in their case committed “flagrant misconduct” by withholding information from defense lawyers but she said at the time that it was not enough to dismiss the case. During a sentencing hearing in federal court in San Diego in early September, assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Ko, who was brought on after the trial last year, admitted to “serious issues” and asked the judge to vacate the officers’ felony convictions.
Venezuela: Americans freed in swap deal - and fraudster Fat Leonard returned
Vanessa Buschschlüter & Sean Seddon
BBC News
USMS San Diego
An infamous fugitive billionaire - known as Fat Leonard - has been released as part of a prisoner swap with Venezuela, the White House has confirmed.
The fugitive, whose real name is Leonard Glenn Francis, masterminded a $35m (£30m) fraud against the US Navy. He escaped from US custody in 2022.
Ten US citizens held in Venezuela were released as part of the deal.
In exchange, the US released Alex Saab, an aide to Venezuela's president.
The Malaysian businessman had escaped house arrest in California two weeks earlier, where he was being held after admitting to his role in a sprawling scam that cost the US tens of millions of dollars and implicated dozens of navy officers.
Prosecutors say he used his Singapore-based business - which had contracts to service US naval vessels - to defraud the US Navy, while also plying American officers with cash and gifts as bribes.
Court documents filed as part of his plea agreement accused Francis of giving US officials millions of dollars worth of gifts, which included lavish trips, "top-shelf alcohol and wine", Spanish suckling pigs, Cuban cigars and access to prostitution services.
Francis was first arrested in 2013, and pleaded guilty to offering $500,000 (£444,000) in bribes in 2015.
Journalist Tom Wright, who made a podcast with Francis entitled Fat Leonard, told the BBC that Francis made "huge amounts of money" after the 9/11 terror attacks by overcharging the US Navy.
Mr Wright added that Francis had agreed to do the podcast as he was "furious" over what he saw as a cover-up. "Admiral after admiral who were involved with him were not taken to court criminally. In the US, it was more lower level officers [who were taken to court]."
In a statement, President Joe Biden said Francis will now be "sentenced for his lead role in a brazen bribery and corruption case".
Alluding to the other US nationals released by Venezuela, he added: "I am grateful that their ordeal is finally over, and that these families are being made whole once more."
The swap deal will also see Mr Saab, a close aide of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, returned.
He faced allegations of laundering money on behalf of the Maduro government, which he denied.
Mr Saab was extradited to the US in 2021 after being arrested during a stopover in Cape Verde.
Getty Images
The Maduro government has long demanded the release of Mr Saab, whom it describes as a "diplomat".
The Colombian-born businessman was on his way to Iran when he was detained on an Interpol "red notice" while his plane refuelled in Cape Verde in 2020.
The Venezuelan government described him as an "envoy" and argued that he had been travelling to Iran to buy medical supplies during the Covid-19 pandemic.
But Cape Verde ruled that he did not have diplomatic status and extradited him to the US, where he was charged with money laundering and bribery.
According to US prosecutors, Mr Saab siphoned off $350m (£276m) from Venezuelan government contracts by fraudulently using favourable exchange rates.
Getty Images
He then allegedly laundered the money in the US before finally transferring it to accounts controlled by him and his alleged associate.
The US treasury department has described Mr Saab as a "profiteer orchestrating a vast corruption network" that it says enabled "President Nicolás Maduro and his regime to significantly profit from food imports and distribution in Venezuela".
Mr Saab has denied the charges and the Maduro government has stood by him, even walking out of US-backed talks with the Venezuelan opposition in protest at Mr Saab's extradition in 2021.
The White House also said Joseph Cristella, Eyvin Hernandez, Jerrel Kenemore, and Savoi Wright were among those released.
It classes six of the 10 Americans released by Venezuela as having been "wrongfully detained".
The White House also said Venezuela had agreed to release 20 Venezuelan political prisoners, as well as opposition figure Roberto Abdul, and had committed to suspending the arrest warrants of three other Venezuelans.
This is not the first prisoner swap the US and Venezuela have agreed.
In October 2022, Venezuela freed seven jailed US citizens in exchange for the release of two nephews of Mr Maduro's wife.
Known as the "narco-nephews", the two men had been serving 18-year sentences in the US for attempting to smuggle cocaine into the US.
Relations between the two countries eased further in October this year when the US agreed to loosen its sanctions on Venezuela in exchange for President Maduro agreeing to allow international observers to monitor next year's presidential election.
But the US has since reiterated its demand that US citizens "wrongfully detained" in Venezuela be freed and threatened to reimpose sanctions if progress was not made on the issue.
Human rights groups in Venezuela have reacted to the news by demanding that the close to 300 people they list as political prisoners in Venezuelan jails also be freed.
Comments
Post a Comment