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Revealed Nov 05, 2024 • 4 minute learn
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This undated picture supplied by the U.S. Marshals Service reveals Leonard Francis. Photograph by U.S. Marshals Service /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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SAN DIEGO — Former navy protection contractor Leonard “Fat Leonard” Francis was sentenced Tuesday to fifteen years in jail for masterminding a decade-long bribery scheme that swept up dozens of U.S. Navy officers, federal prosecutors mentioned.
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U.S. District Decide Janis L. Sammartino additionally ordered Francis to pay $20 million in restitution to the Navy and a $150,000 wonderful, in accordance with a press release from the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace. He was additionally ordered to forfeit $35 million in “ill-gotten proceeds from his crimes,” the assertion mentioned.
Prosecutors mentioned the sentence resulted from Francis’ first responsible plea in 2015 regarding bribery and fraud, his intensive cooperation with the federal government since then and one other responsible plea Tuesday for failing to look for his unique sentencing listening to in 2022.
Shortly earlier than he was attributable to be sentenced in September 2022, Francis minimize off a GPS monitor he was carrying whereas below home arrest and fled the nation. He was later arrested in Venezuela and introduced again to the U.S. in December 2023.
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Sammartino sentenced him to greater than 13 1/2 years for the bribery and fraud {charges}, plus 16 months for failing to look. The sentences are to be served consecutively.
“Leonard Francis lined his pockets with taxpayer dollars while undermining the integrity of U.S. Naval forces,” U.S. Lawyer Tara McGrath mentioned in Tuesday’s assertion. “The impact of his deceit and manipulation will be long felt, but justice has been served today.”
E mail and cellphone messages searching for remark have been left Tuesday for William Douglas Sprague, an legal professional for Francis.
Sprague, who sought a sentence of just below 9 years, argued that his shopper’s cooperation ought to warrant a lesser sentence, 10 Information San Diego reported.
Sprague additionally mentioned Francis’ firm supplied the Navy with exemplary companies for a few years.
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“Unfortunately, as Leonard acknowledged in his early guilty plea and immediate cooperation, his greed drove him to commit bribery and to commit fraud,” Sprague mentioned.
Prosecutors mentioned Francis’ actions led to one of many greatest bribery investigations in U.S. navy historical past, which resulted within the conviction and sentencing of almost two dozen Navy officers, protection contractors and others on numerous fraud and corruption {charges}.
An enigmatic determine who was 6-foot-3 and weighed 350 kilos at one time, Francis owned and operated his household’s ship servicing enterprise, Singapore-based Glenn Protection Marine Asia Ltd. or GDMA, which provided meals, water and gasoline to vessels. The Malaysian protection contractor was a key contact for U.S. Navy ships at ports throughout Asia for greater than twenty years. Throughout that point, Francis wooed naval officers with Kobe beef, costly cigars, live performance tickets and wild {sex} events at luxurious inns from Thailand to the Philippines.
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In trade, officers, together with the primary active-duty admiral to be convicted of a federal crime, hid the scheme through which Francis would overcharge for supplying ships or cost for faux companies at ports he managed in Southeast Asia. The officers handed him labeled info and even went as far as redirecting navy vessels to ports that have been profitable for his Singapore-based ship servicing firm.
In a federal sting, Francis was lured to San Diego on false pretenses and arrested at a resort in September 2013. He pleaded responsible in 2015, admitting that he had provided greater than $500,000 in money bribes to Navy officers, protection contractors and others. Prosecutors say he bilked the Navy out of at the very least $35 million. As a part of his plea deal, he cooperated with the investigation resulting in the Navy convictions. He confronted as much as 25 years in jail.
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Whereas awaiting sentencing, Francis was hospitalized and handled for renal most cancers and different medical points. After leaving the hospital, he was allowed to remain out of jail at a rental residence, on home arrest with a GPS ankle monitor and safety guards.
However three weeks earlier than his scheduled sentencing in September 2022, he snipped off his monitor and made a brazen escape, setting off a world search. Officers mentioned he fled to Mexico, made his strategy to Cuba and finally received to Venezuela.
He was arrested greater than two weeks after his disappearance _ caught earlier than he boarded a flight on the Simon Bolivar Worldwide Airport exterior Caracas. Venezuelan officers mentioned he supposed to achieve Russia.
The instances have been dealt with by the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace in an effort to be impartial of the navy justice system. However they’ve got here below scrutiny.
The felony convictions of 4 former Navy officers have been vacated following allegations of prosecutorial misconduct. Sammartino agreed to permit them to plead responsible to a misdemeanor and pay a $100 wonderful every.
Final 12 months, Sammartino dominated that the lead federal prosecutor within the officers’ case dedicated “flagrant misconduct” by withholding info from protection attorneys, however that it was not sufficient to dismiss the case.
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