The Malaysian contractor often called “Fat Leonard,” who bribed dozens of high-ranking U.S. Navy officers within the service’s worst-ever corruption scandal, was sentenced Tuesday in San Diego federal courtroom to fifteen years in jail.
Leonard Glenn Francis, 60, will doubtless spend about 8½ extra years in federal jail when accounting for the credit score he’ll obtain from the time he has already been held in custody. He may serve even much less if he qualifies for early launch, although his legal professional warned the decide {that a} prolonged jail time period could be “essentially a death sentence” for Francis, who has handled extreme well being points.
U.S. District Decide Janis Sammartino additionally indicated she would order Francis to pay $20 million in restitution to the Navy on prime of the $35 million he was beforehand ordered to forfeit as a part of his plea settlement. Moreover, she ordered Francis’ Singapore-based firm, Glenn Protection Marine Asia, to pay a $36 million advantageous.
Francis, who has solely ever mentioned a handful of phrases in open courtroom, somberly addressed the decide and requested for mercy so he may very well be reunited together with his youngsters.
An undated picture of Leonard Glenn Francis, aka Fats Leonard. (Obtained by The Washington Publish)
“I sincerely regret my misconduct that led to this day,” Francis mentioned. “I beg for the court’s mercy, leniency and compassion.”
Putting a markedly extra humble tone in comparison with the vanity and bravado he displayed in a podcast that he secretly recorded in 2021, Francis known as his actions “inexcusable and wrong,” referring each to the large bribery scheme in addition to his 2022 escape from home arrest simply weeks earlier than a beforehand scheduled sentencing.
He additionally credited Sammartino for saving his life by releasing him on medical furlough in 2018, saying it’s a miracle he’s nonetheless alive. “I have almighty God and the court to thank for that,” Francis mentioned. Sammatino mentioned she would suggest that Francis serve his custody in a federal medical heart jail in North Carolina.
Francis was arrested in late 2013 and pleaded responsible in 2015 to fees of bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery and conspiracy to defraud america. GDMA, which contracted to supply items and providers to Navy vessels for 25 years in ports throughout Asia, pleaded responsible to the identical fees. Francis additionally pleaded responsible Tuesday to a cost of failure to seem associated to his flight from custody in 2022.
Assistant U.S. Legal professional Fred Sheppard instructed the decide Tuesday that Francis’ corruption scheme reached the “highest levels of the U.S. Navy … to an extent that has never been seen before.” Sheppard mentioned the 36 defendants charged in federal courtroom had been “just the tip of the iceberg.”
Francis spent a long time ingratiating himself with a rotating forged of officers from the Navy’s seventh Fleet within the Western Pacific. Relationship again no less than as early as 2004 however doubtless for much longer, he showered these officers with bribes that included gourmand meals, five-star resort rooms, premium liquor, prostitutes, designer baggage and money. The officers in flip steered ships to the Southeast Asian ports that he managed. Francis then charged the U.S. authorities closely inflated costs for providers corresponding to safety, tugboats, meals, water replenishment and trash elimination. He bilked the federal government out of no less than $35 million, in accordance with his plea.
Sammartino, who has overseen practically all the associated prosecutions over the previous 11 years, known as Francis’ corruption of the Navy “insidious” and mentioned he helped tarnish the reputations of in any other case revered officers.
“Careers have been ruined and lives shattered,” the decide mentioned. “The ruined lives include yours.”
Francis has two weeks to enchantment Sammartino’s sentence, which was greater than three years longer than what prosecutors advisable and greater than six years longer than what Francis’ legal professional requested. Protection legal professional Douglas Sprague instructed the Union-Tribune that he was “very disappointed” within the sentence however would want to seek the advice of with Francis earlier than figuring out whether or not to enchantment.
U.S. Legal professional Tara McGrath and dozens of federal regulation enforcement brokers who investigated Francis over time had been amongst those that attended the listening to, which was a very long time coming. It had been greater than 11 years since brokers arrested Francis and three,582 days since his responsible plea. Throughout that point, Francis performed a lead function in essentially the most dramatic twists within the Navy corruption prosecution.
He turned the important thing witness for the federal government, offering what prosecutors known as “unprecedented” cooperation over the course of 65 conferences. Then in a transfer that was stored secret for months, Sammartino launched him from custody to be handled for kidney most cancers and different illnesses. Quickly, Francis had used the medical furlough to maneuver himself and his household right into a $7,000-per-month mansion.
The home that Leonard Glenn Francis, aka “Fat Leonard,” was renting earlier than he reduce his ankle bracelet and vanished on the morning of Sept. 4, 2022, is proven at heart on Collins Ranch Place within the Torrey Highlands neighborhood of San Diego. (John Gastaldo / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Whereas residing massive within the multimillion-dollar residence, he secretly recorded a podcast with journalist Tom Wright that was launched months earlier than he was anticipated to take the witness stand in a trial in opposition to 5 Navy officers. He by no means took the stand. Then weeks earlier than he was lastly set to be sentenced in September 2022, he absconded, slicing off his GPS ankle monitor and occurring the lam. After his seize in Venezuela, he spent 14 months imprisoned earlier than he was traded again to the U.S. final yr as a part of a prisoner swap.
Sammartino confirmed Tuesday, regardless of prior confusion, that Francis would obtain time-served credit score for his Venezuelan jail keep as a result of he was arrested and held on the behest of the U.S. authorities.
However the decide expressed issues in regards to the lack of solutions and accountability associated to his absconding. “Neither you nor the government have explained how that escape occurred,” she mentioned.
Sammartino instructed Francis he had a expertise for figuring out weak folks and exploiting their weaknesses, however she additionally credited Francis and his firm for upholding their contracts, even after they had been overcharging, by protecting Navy ships and U.S. army personnel safe.
Sammartino additionally credited Francis for his cooperation with prosecutors. Sheppard described Francis’ corruption as staggering, however his cooperation as “equally staggering,” saying he didn’t know of every other felony defendant who has ever offered as a lot perception to investigators and prosecutors.
The knowledge offered by Francis led authorities to research some 1,000 Navy personnel and refer greater than 600 of them to a Navy physique tasked with figuring out whether or not to dole out administrative or disciplinary motion. Prosecutors secured responsible pleas or jury convictions in opposition to greater than 30 folks, most of them Navy officers who took bribes from Francis, although authorities attorneys later admitted to severe points involving the prosecutions, together with trial misconduct, that led to eight defendants having their felony convictions lowered to misdemeanors and one defendant having his case solely dismissed.
Even after Tuesday’s sentencing, a number of different questions nonetheless stay in regards to the sprawling corruption scandal, most notably whether or not Francis will enchantment his sentence and whether or not he can pay what he owes in forfeiture and restitution to the federal government. “I don’t have any insights into his ability to pay,” Sheppard instructed the decide Tuesday.
Leonard Glenn Francis, also referred to as “Fat Leonard.” (U.S. Marshals Service)
Within the podcast he recorded, Francis appeared to boast about hiding his property within the time between his arrest and his responsible plea.
Francis’ wealth was on the coronary heart of his corruption scheme. He continuously flashed that wealth, residing in a 40,000-square-foot home in Singapore with a fleet of luxurious autos at his disposal and a crew of staff tending to his wants.
Regardless of his bribery and corruption being an open secret amongst seventh Fleet sailors, Francis was capable of keep one step forward of investigators for years, at one level bribing a Naval Legal Investigative Service agent to leak him particulars about felony probes.
The gorgeous corruption scheme lastly got here to an finish in September 2013, when authorities tricked his NCIS mole into pondering essentially the most severe investigations had been closed after which invited Francis to San Diego for a gathering with Navy officers. After the assembly, armed federal brokers burst into Francis’ Twenty first-floor resort room on the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina and arrested him.
Initially Revealed: November 6, 2024 at 6:31 AM PST
