{"id":122630,"date":"2024-11-06T07:32:37","date_gmt":"2024-11-06T00:32:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=122630"},"modified":"2024-11-06T07:32:37","modified_gmt":"2024-11-06T00:32:37","slug":"fat-leonard-sentenced-to-15-years-for-massive-navy-bribery-fraud-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=122630","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Fat Leonard&#8221; sentenced to 15 years for massive Navy bribery, fraud scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>Leonard Glenn Francis, a former defense contractor convicted for masterminding an unprecedented bribery and fraud scheme targeting the U.S. Navy, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to 15 years in prison. He was ordered to pay $20 million in restitution and a $150,000 fine, the Department of Justice announced.<\/p>\n<p>Francis, known as &#8220;Fat Leonard,&#8221; pled guilty in 2015 to the bribery and fraud charges, but fled the U.S. in 2022 leaving his GPS ankle monitoring bracelet in a water cooler\u00a0<span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/fat-leonard-glenn-francis-navy-corruption-escape\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">just days before he was to be sentenced.<\/a><\/span>\u00a0The U.S. Marshals Service told CBS News Francis was detained on an Interpol red notice at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Venezuela while boarding a flight to Cuba.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He was returned to the U.S. last year as part of a large prisoner swap deal with Venezuela.\u00a0Ten\u00a0<span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/two-americans-detained-venezuela-biden-release\/\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">American detainees<\/a><\/span>\u00a0were released in the 2023 deal in exchange for the Biden administration\u00a0<span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/miami\/news\/key-ally-of-venezuela-leaders-nicolas-maduro-to-appear-in-us-federal-court-on-money-laundering-charge\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">freeing Alex Saab<\/a><\/span>, a Colombian-born businessman and close ally of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro who was facing money laundering charges.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"embed embed--type-image is-image embed--float-none embed--size-medium\"><span class=\"img embed__content\"><img alt=\"fat-leonard.png \" height=\"437\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2022\/09\/07\/2047cce0-e312-43ea-9c3b-61885f62fd5e\/thumbnail\/620x437\/de3e8adf9319f76f8c41cfcc3712d95d\/fat-leonard.png?v=c1d30b1df13c40bf65c6c1e6d9ac4ad7 1x\"\/><\/span><figcaption class=\"embed__caption-container\"><span class=\"embed__caption\">Leonard Francis, also known as &#8220;Fat Leonard,&#8221; fled house arrest in 2022, days before he was due to be sentenced in a massive Navy bribery scheme.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__credit\"><\/p>\n<p>                U.S. Marshals Service via AP<\/p>\n<p>                          <\/span><br \/>\n              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In a\u00a0<span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/navy-bribery-probe-involving-cash-prostitutes-gathering-momentum\/\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">2015 plea agreement<\/a><\/span>, Francis, the Malaysian owner of a ship servicing company in Southeast Asia, identified seven Navy officials who had accepted bribes and acknowledged paying off officials with hundreds of thousands in cash, as well as luxury goods worth millions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"newsletter_signup \">\n<figure class=\"embed embed--type-newsletter-widget embed--float-none embed--size-large embed--type-iframe\" data-ads=\"{\" wordcount=\"\">\n<\/figure>\n<\/aside>\n<p>He supplied them with prostitutes and Cuban cigars, luxury travel, Spanish suckling pigs and Kobe beef. Officials received spa treatments, top-shelf alcohol, designer handbags, leather goods, designer furniture, watches, fountain pens, ornamental swords and handmade ship models, according to court documents.<\/p>\n<p>In exchange, officers gave him classified information and even redirected military vessels to lucrative ports for his Singapore-based ship servicing company. Francis, according to prosecutors, overcharged the U.S. military by $35 million for his company&#8217;s services.<\/p>\n<p>Over 30 Navy officers and contractors have either been convicted or pleaded guilty to charges related to Francis&#8217; services.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Janis L. Sammartino sentenced Francis to a 164-month sentence for bribery and fraud and 16 months for failing to appear, to be served consecutively.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Leonard Francis lined his pockets with taxpayer dollars while undermining the integrity of U.S. Naval forces,&#8221; said U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath in a statement. &#8220;The impact of his deceit and manipulation will be long felt, but justice has been served today.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Francis, 60, was <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/fat-leonard-navy-corruption-scandal-mastermind-leonard-glenn-francis-escapes-house-arrest\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">initially arrested<\/a><\/span>\u00a0in San Diego on September 16, 2013, and remained in pretrial custody until December 18, 2017, when the court granted his request for release pending sentencing due to a medical condition, the Department of Justice said. Francis served four years and three months in custody before he was released on bond and ordered into house arrest. He remained on bond under the supervision of U.S. Pretrial Services for almost five years, from December 17, 2017, until he escaped.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mr. Francis&#8217; sentencing brings closure to an expansive fraud scheme that he perpetrated against the U.S. Navy with assistance from various Navy officials. This fraud conspiracy ultimately cost the American taxpayer millions of dollars and weakened the public&#8217;s trust in some of our Navy&#8217;s senior leaders,&#8221; Kelly P. Mayo, the director of the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Inspector General said in a news release on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- data-recirc-source=\"queryly\" --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"component list recirculation component--type-recirculation \">\n<p><h3 class=\"component__title\">More from CBS News<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p><!-- tags --><\/p>\n<div class=\"content-author\">\n      <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/team\/elias-lopez\/\" class=\"content-author__name\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">Elias Lopez<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"content-author__bio\">\n<div class=\"content-author__full-information\">\n<p class=\"content-author__text\">Elias Lopez is a senior editor at CBSNews.com. He covers a variety of news events and works with reporters on developing stories in politics, international news and more.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/fat-leonard-glenn-francis-sentenced-15-years-navy-bribery\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Leonard Glenn Francis, a former defense contractor convicted for masterminding an unprecedented bribery and fraud scheme targeting the U.S. Navy, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to 15 years in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=122630\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=122630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=122630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=122630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=122630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}