The United States has imprisoned Fat Leonard in the Navy's largest bribery case. who absconded from a previously scheduled sentencing and was sentenced to 15 years. In 2015, Leonard Glenn Francis, commonly known as "Fat Leonard," pleaded guilty to bribing top Navy officials with millions of dollars in cash, prostitution services, luxury travel, fine cigars, and premium booze. Francis had requested that he be allowed to receive confidential information from the Navy in exchange for the services of his company to the 7th Fleet stationed in the Indo-Pacific in return for overcharging it $35 million (£27 million). He was expected to be sentenced in 2022, but he escaped that September after cutting off his ankle band. He was later caught a few days later.
The US Attorney's Office said the Tuesday sentence reflected admissions in his 2015 guilty plea, his "extensive cooperation with the government," and a guilty plea earlier on Tuesday for failing to appear at the original sentencing hearing.
The court also fined the 60-year-old $150,000 and ordered him to pay the United States Navy $20 million in compensation. On Tuesday, his company, Singapore-based Glenn Defense Marine Asia, was sentenced to five years probation and a $36 million fine. US officials said the incident damaged public trust in some Navy officers and will have long-term consequences. Francis was arrested in California in 2013 and later pleaded guilty to bribery and fraud charges in 2015.
He was arrested in Venezuela about three days after his September break-out while trying to find his way to Russia. It became known as the Fat Leonard affair because Francis, at the time, was grossly obese.
Francis was returned to California in December as part of a prisoner exchange between the United States and Venezuela, where Washington freed a supporter of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in exchange for ten American captives. Leonard Francis lined his pockets with taxpayer dollars while undermining the integrity of the US Naval forces, US Attorney Tara McGrath said in a statement.
"The impact of his fraud and deceit will be felt for years to come, but justice has been served today," the US Attorney's Office said. The bribery and corruption that Francis had "cultivated" within the US Navy for decades was "aggravated and egregious," but while in detention, he helped investigators expose "unprecedented levels of corruption" within the organization, the US Attorney's Office said.
The US Navy had long been subject to bribery and corruption "promoted" by Francis within its ranks, but even that was "aggravated and egregious," according to the US Attorney's Office, which said he actually helped investigators reveal "unprecedented levels of corruption" while being held in detention.
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