SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Nearly a decade after pleading guilty to bribing Navy officials in order to benefit his ship husbanding company, foreign defense contractor Leonard Glenn "Fat Leonard" Francis is set to be sentenced Tuesday in San Diego.
Francis' sentencing follows a controversial trial of five Navy officers, guilty pleas from dozens of other defendants, and Francis' own flight from the country while on house arrest.
Prosecutors are seeking a prison term of 11 years and eight months for Francis, who admitted giving free meals, hotel rooms, prostitutes, and other gifts to Naval officials, who in turn helped steer Navy ships to ports Francis controlled. Francis' company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, then charged the Navy over $35 million for the company's services, prosecutors said.
His sentence from U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino -- who has presided over the entirety of the case -- will cover his role in the bribery scheme, as well as his escape from San Diego. Francis is expected to plead guilty on Tuesday to a federal count of failure to appear in court.
In their sentencing memorandum, prosecutors described the bribery scheme as "aggravated and egregious," but said Francis is being credited in their sentencing recommendation for the information he provided authorities. Francis met with investigators more than 50 times over the course of several years, providing them with "detailed information on hundreds of individuals, from petty officers to admirals, including captains, commanders, Vice Admirals, and Rear Admirals," according to prosecutors, who wrote "the degree and significance of his cooperation cannot be overstated."
Francis' cooperation was part and parcel of the defense for the five Navy officers who went to trial in 2022. Their attorneys argued Francis spun a web of lies implicating numerous Navy officials in order to secure a reduced sentence and other benefits from the government. Despite the information he divulged, Francis was never called to testify in the trial.
Following his guilty plea, Francis initially spent time in custody, but was later placed on house arrest in San Diego on a medical furlough due to a variety of health problems.
Officials say that in the fall of 2022, as his sentencing in the bribery case neared, Francis cut off a GPS monitor he was required to wear and disappeared from San Diego. He was later arrested in Venezuela and brought back to the United States last December following a prisoner exchange between the two countries.
In sentencing papers, his attorneys -- who are seeking a prison term of eight years and nine months -- say Francis fled due in part to controversies surrounding the prosecution of Navy officials accused of accepting his bribes.
They wrote Francis feared that "the lead prosecutor no longer would or could be a credible advocate" to argue his cooperation warranted a reduced sentence.
That prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Pletcher, was found by Sammartino to have committed "flagrant misconduct" amid the five Naval officers' trial. Four of those officers were convicted, but those convictions were later vacated and the officers were allowed to plead guilty to misdemeanors in the wake of the misconduct allegations, which included accusations that the prosecutor withheld information from the officers' defense attorneys.
Other guilty pleas entered by other Navy officers to felony counts were later allowed to be reduced to misdemeanors, while charges against another officer who pleaded guilty were dismissed entirely.
According to his attorneys, Francis was also concerned about remaining in the United States due to his mother's deteriorating health and "concluded that the chances of him ever seeing his mother alive again were quickly evaporating." Francis was also undergoing serious health issues of his own, the attorneys say.
They argue Francis "panicked" and "in a horrendous mistake of judgment, he left the United States hoping to eventually figure out some way to get to a place where he could spend time with his mother before either of them died." Francis' mother died earlier this year in Malaysia while he was in custody.
"Leonard understands that this decision was inexcusable and wrong," the sentencing memorandum reads. "He sincerely regrets the decision and labels it one of the worst decisions he has made in his life."
Copyright 2024, City News Service, Inc.
