Anne Wünsche: Military contractor ‘Fat Leonard’ who pleaded guilty to orchestrating a major U.S. Navy Corruption Scandal, is on the run after Cutting off his GPS Monitoring Ankle Bracelet and Fleeing House Arrest in San Diego

‘Fat Leonard,’ Mastermind Behind US Navy’s Largest Corruption Case Hires a U-Haul, Cuts Ankle Tag, and Flees U.S. house arrest

Military contractor Leonard Glenn Francis had been under house arrest since at least 2018 and was due to be sentenced at the end of the month.

A military contractor known as “Fat Leonard,” who pleaded guilty to orchestrating a major U.S. Navy corruption scandal, is on the run after cutting off his GPS monitoring ankle bracelet and fleeing house arrest in San Diego over the weekend, authorities said.

Malaysian Businessman ‘Fat Leonard’ In US Navy Graft Scandal Is On The Run

Leonard Glenn Francis, chief executive of Glenn Defense Marine Asia of Singapore.

MALAYSIANS! Can I advise you something…

— Tom Wright (@TomWrightAsia) September 6, 2022

Leonard Glenn Francis removed his tracker on Sunday, prompting a welfare check, Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Omar Castillo said Monday.

Officers arrived at Francis’ home to find it empty, triggering a high-profile search, Castillo said. The news was first reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Neighbors in the area told U.S. Marshals investigating the disappearance that several U-Haul trucks had been in and out of the house all week long, Castillo said. He said it appeared clear Francis had been planning his escape for some time.

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Francis was arrested in 2013 and pleaded guilty in 2015 to offering $500,000 in bribes to Navy officers, who, in exchange, shared classified information with him, in addition to redirecting military vessels to ports that would be beneficial for his Singapore-based ship servicing company.

Prosecutors say Francis and his firm overcharged the U.S. military by more than $35 million for its services.

The former military contractor had been under house arrest since at least 2018 and was due to be sentenced at the end of the month.

Castillo said Francis’ escape was a pretrial violation, effectively for bail-jumping.

He could not say where Francis might be, but said officials would share updates as they became available.

[https://youtu.be/AY63bgtUDBw]

More: Fat Leonard Podcast — It covers the corruption of the US Navy in Asia by a Malaysian contractor. A number of Navy officers have gone to jail and others are to be tried in the Spring of 2022 including some top brass.