Leonard Glenn Francis, also known as ‘Fat Leonard,’ has revealed how he managed to swindle the US Navy and evade federal law enforcement for over a year. In an interview with the Washington Post from prison, Francis, a 61-year-old Malaysian national, described his escape from house arrest in 2022 as ‘not rocket science,’ attributing his success to ‘negligence on the government’s part.’ Francis was arrested in 2013 and pleaded guilty to bribery and fraud charges. While under house arrest in San Diego, he cut off his GPS tracker and escaped, eventually hiding out in Venezuela.
He was found hiding out in Venezuela in 2023 and is now hoping to avoid a long prison sentence by seeking a pardon from President Donald Trump. Francis spent over two decades running a contracting scheme through his defense company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia. He bribed US Navy officers with luxury items and overcharged the government $35 million for fuel, tugboats, and sewage disposal services.
The investigation into his activities also uncovered 10 Navy officers who admitted to leaking classified information in exchange for encounters with prostitutes and other bribes. Francis claimed that he got away with his scheme for so long by ‘wining and dining’ Navy officers. He bragged that his methods were an open secret among officers, and that senior officials embraced him because his company controlled $200 million in federal contracts and always delivered on its services.
Francis’s escape involved chartering a private jet to Havana, where he then boarded another plane to Caracas. He attempted to gain asylum status in Venezuela but was eventually arrested and handed over to US authorities as part of a prisoner swap. Francis was diagnosed with Stage 4 kidney cancer in 2017, and despite his initial prognosis, he survived well beyond expectations.
However, his health was deteriorating by the time of his flight from the US, and he was treated for his cancer in Caracas while in detention. Francis was kept in detention until December 2023, when he was handed over to the US Marshals Service in exchange for an ally of then-Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro who had been arrested and was being held in Miami on money laundering charges. Francis was sentenced to 180 months in prison and ordered to pay $20 million in restitution.
He was also forced to forfeit $35 million. ‘Mr. Francis’s sentencing brings closure to an expansive fraud scheme … [that] ultimately cost the American taxpayer millions of dollars and weakened the public’s trust in some of our Navy’s senior leaders,’ said Kelly P. Mayo, director of the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service. Despite his sentence, Francis fears that his kidney cancer will kill him before his release in late 2030.
He has appealed for early release due to his condition, but the appeal was denied in January. Francis is now pinning his hopes on a pardon from President Trump, although a White House official has cast doubt over the request. ‘The White House is not tracking this individual’s supposed request,’ the official told the newspaper. ‘President Trump is the ultimate decision-maker on all clemency-related actions.’
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