‘Fat Leonard’, the naval contractor behind one of the military’s biggest scandals, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison

Former military defense contractor Leonard “Fat Leonard” Francis He was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison for masterminding a decade-long bribery scheme that captured dozens of U.S. Navy officers, federal prosecutors said.

U.S. District Judge Janis L. Sammartino also ordered Francis to pay $20 million in restitution and a $150,000 fine to the Navy, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He was also ordered to forfeit $35 million in “ill-gotten proceeds of his crimes,” the statement said.

Prosecutors said the sentence stemmed from Leonard’s initial guilty plea in 2015 for bribery and fraud, his extensive cooperation with the government since then, and another guilty plea filed Tuesday for his failure to appear at his first sentencing hearing in 2022.

Shortly before his sentencing in September 2022, Leonard cut off the GPS monitor he wore while under house arrest and fled the country. He was later arrested in Venezuela and brought back to the United States in December 2023.

Sammartino sentenced him to more than 13 1/2 years in prison on bribery and fraud charges, plus 16 consecutive months in prison for failure to appear.

“Leonard Francis undermined the integrity of the U.S. Navy while lining his pockets with taxpayer dollars,” U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath said in a statement Tuesday. “The impact of his deception and manipulation will be felt for a long time, but today justice was served.”

Prosecutors said Francis’ actions led to one of the largest bribery investigations in U.S. military history, resulting in the conviction and sentencing of nearly two dozen Navy officials, defense contractors and others on various fraud and corruption charges.

Francis, an enigmatic figure who stood 6 feet tall and once weighed 350 kilograms, owned and operated his family’s Singapore-based ship service business, Glenn Defense Marine Asia Ltd. (GDMA), which supplied food, water and fuel to ships. The Malaysian defense contractor was a key contact for U.S. Navy ships in ports across Asia for more than two decades. During this time, Francis won the hearts of naval officers with Kobe beef, expensive cigars, concert tickets and wild orgies in luxury hotels from Thailand to the Philippines.

In response, the officers, including the first active-duty admiral convicted of a federal crime, concealed a plan in which Francis would overcharge for the supply of ships or charge for bogus services in ports he controlled in Southeast Asia. Officers passed him classified information and even went so far as to divert military ships to ports that were lucrative for the Singapore-based ship service company.

In a federal sting, Francis was lured to San Diego under false pretenses and arrested at a hotel in September 2013. He pleaded guilty in 2015, admitting that he offered more than $500,000 in cash bribes to Navy officials, defense contractors and others. Prosecutors say he stole at least $35 million from the Navy. As part of the plea agreement, he cooperated with the Navy’s investigation that led to his convictions. He faced up to 25 years in prison.

While awaiting sentencing, Francis was hospitalized and treated for kidney cancer and other medical problems. After leaving the hospital, he was allowed to remain under house arrest in a rented house, with a GPS ankle monitor and security guards.

But three weeks before his scheduled sentencing in September 2022, he cut off his monitor and made a brazen escape, sparking an international search. Authorities said he fled to Mexico, traveled to Cuba and eventually reached Venezuela.

He was arrested more than two weeks after his disappearance; He was captured before boarding the plane at Simon Bolivar International Airport outside Caracas. Venezuelan officials said he was planning to reach Russia.

The cases were handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in an effort to be independent of the military justice system. But they were put under scrutiny.

The felony convictions of four former Navy officers were overturned following allegations of prosecutorial misconduct. Sammartino agreed to let them plead guilty and pay $100 fines each.

Last year, Sammartino ruled that the lead federal prosecutor in the officers’ case had engaged in “clear misconduct” by withholding information from defense attorneys, but that was not enough to dismiss the case.

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