Leonard Glenn Francis (U.S. Marshals Service by way of AP)
MIAMI — A protection contractor on the middle of one of many largest bribery scandals in US army historical past is anticipated to face further fees following his return to the US from Venezuela as a part of a broader prisoner swap between the 2 nations, a federal prosecutor stated Thursday.
Leonard Glenn Francis, who’s nicknamed “Fats Leonard,” confronted a federal decide for the primary time since snipping off his ankle monitor final yr and disappearing weeks earlier than a sentencing listening to on fees that he provided greater than $500,000 in money bribes to Navy officers, protection contractors and others.
He was later arrested in Venezuela and had been in custody there since, however was returned to the US in a big swap Wednesday that additionally noticed the discharge of 10 American detainees by Venezuela in trade for the Biden administration releasing Alex Saab, a Colombian-born businessman and shut ally of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro who’d been charged within the US in a cash laundering case.
Francis, shackled and in a beige jumpsuit, stood by quietly as a federal Justice of the Peace decide in Miami ordered him to be transferred to the Southern District of California, the area the place his case was initially filed.
Prosecutors stated further fees can be offered in opposition to Francis for failing to look at a listening to in his ongoing bribery case in San Diego.
“Not proper now,” an in any other case expressionless however soft-spoken Francis stated in response to Justice of the Peace Choose Jacqueline Becerra’s query about whether or not he may afford an lawyer.
Francis was arrested in a San Diego lodge almost a decade in the past as a part of a federal sting operation. Investigators say he bilked the U.S. army out of greater than $35 million by shopping for off dozens of top-ranking Navy officers with booze, intercourse, lavish events and different presents.
The scandal led to the conviction and sentencing of almost two dozen Navy officers, protection contractors and others on varied fraud and corruption fees. Investigators say Francis, who owned and operated his household’s ship-servicing enterprise, abused his place as a key contact for US Navy retailers at ports throughout Asia, wooing naval officers with Kobe beef, costly cigars, live performance tickets and wild intercourse events at luxurious motels from Thailand to the Philippines.
He pleaded responsible in 2015 and was allowed to remain out of jail at a rental house, on home arrest with a GPS ankle monitor and safety guards.
However weeks earlier than he confronted sentencing in September 2022, Francis made a daring escape as he reduce off his ankle monitor and disappeared. Officers stated he fled to Mexico, made his solution to Cuba and finally acquired to Venezuela.
He was arrested a few weeks later earlier than boarding a flight on the Simon Bolivar Worldwide Airport outdoors Caracas. Venezuelan officers stated he supposed to succeed in Russia.
He had been in custody in Venezuela ever since, and officers stated he sought asylum there.
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Newly unsealed courtroom paperwork present federal prosecutors making preparations final week for Saab’s launch from U.S. custody, telling a decide that they anticipated that President Joe Biden would grant clemency for Saab and requesting an order for the US Marshals Service to take Saab out of federal jail “primarily based on important international coverage pursuits of the US.”