This undated photo provided by the U.S. Marshals Service shows Leonard Francis. (U.S. Marshals Service/AP)
SAN DIEGO — Leonard Glenn Francis, the rotund U.S. Navy contractor, con man and escape artist who repeatedly outwitted federal officials over two decades, could be freed from prison in as little as one year under a new plea agreement he has reached with the Justice Department, court records show.
The admitted mastermind of the most extensive corruption scandal in U.S. military history, Francis is scheduled to be sentenced on fraud and bribery charges Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Diego, 11 years after he was first arrested here in an international sting operation and two years after he escaped and fled to Venezuela.
In December, Francis returned to the United States in shackles as part of a high-stakes prisoner swap negotiated between the Biden administration and the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Under federal sentencing guidelines, Francis normally would be expected to receive a prison term of between about 17.5 and 22 years for his crimes, court papers show.
But as part of its plea agreement with Francis, the Justice Department has agreed to support a much lighter punishment, citing the extensive cooperation he provided to federal agents investigating corruption in the Navy before he absconded to Venezuela.
Francis, 60, is currently being held in jail in San Diego. A Malaysian citizen, he would be deported upon completing his sentence. Long known as “Fat Leonard” within maritime circles because of his girth, his company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, once held $250 million in federal contracts to resupply and service Navy ships during port visits in Asia.
In court papers, Francis has acknowledged bribing “scores” of Navy officers to look the other way while his company overbilled the federal government for tens of millions of dollars in port visit expenses. Since the early 1990s, documents show, he treated visiting admirals and ship captains to lavish dinners in Michelin-star restaurants, hosted sex parties during which he supplied Navy officers with prostitutes, and enticed 10 U.S. sailors to leak him military secrets.
As part of the plea deal, federal prosecutors are recommending that U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino impose a total prison sentence of 140 months, or slightly less than 12 years. Francis’s attorney, meanwhile, is urging the judge to sentence Francis to just under nine years.
Francis has already spent more than six years behind bars since he was first arrested in 2013, time that would count against his sentence. He is also likely to be eligible for substantial early-release credits that would further shorten his prison stay.
With those reductions, he could win his freedom by the end of next year if the judge adopts the sentence recommended by his attorney, according to lawyers familiar with the case. If the Justice Department prevails, Francis would probably have to wait about three and a half years before he is eligible for release.
Sammartino, who has served on the federal bench since 2007 and has overseen the prosecution of Francis and 32 other defendants in the Navy corruption scandal, is not bound by the recommendations and could impose a stiffer or more lenient sentence.
Francis is the lone remaining defendant in the case. His sentencing will mark the end of a saga that paralyzed the Navy’s leadership for nearly a decade.
In a recent court filing, prosecutors said Francis orchestrated a bribery campaign “that, for all practical purposes, engulfed a generation of U.S. Navy command staff.”
After his arrest, nearly 1,000 people came under scrutiny, including 91 admirals. Federal prosecutors brought criminal charges against 34 defendants, while the Navy court-martialed four people and disciplined numerous others. Dozens of other high-ranking officers implicated in the case were passed over for promotion or forced to retire.
Francis first pleaded guilty to fraud and bribery charges in 2015. As part of his initial plea deal, he became a cooperating witness. Between 2015 and 2017, federal agents and prosecutors questioned him for more than 300 hours. During those interviews, he incriminated hundreds of Navy personnel by providing detailed evidence of how they had accepted his gifts and favors.
Federal authorities — thrilled with Francis’s assistance — gradually gave in to some of his demands for special treatment.
While imprisoned in late 2017, Francis was diagnosed with kidney cancer and other serious ailments, including complications from weight-loss surgery that he had undergone before his arrest. During secret court proceedings, his attorneys asked for his release on medical furlough, asserting that he was likely to die if he remained in custody.
Fearful that they could lose their star witness, Sammartino and federal prosecutors agreed so Francis could receive treatment from private doctors. But federal officials also allowed him to live in luxurious comfort, residing in a $5,000-per-month mansion in San Diego with a swimming pool and servants.
Over Labor Day weekend in 2022, the ailing con man fled. He cut off an electronic ankle bracelet that court officials were using to track his whereabouts, hailed an Uber and raced south for the border. By the time anyone noticed he had vanished, he was already in Mexico, en route to Venezuela. Francis was arrested a few weeks later during a layover at Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía. At the time, he was trying to make arrangements to travel to Russia.
In addition to bribery and fraud, Francis has agreed to plead guilty to a new charge related to his escape. Federal prosecutors said in court papers that he merited a lighter punishment than called for under sentencing guidelines because he had provided so much evidence against corrupt Navy officials.
“Perhaps a harsher sentence would be justified given Francis’s egregious and prolonged criminal conduct, as well as his violation of the Court’s trust with respect to his release on medical furlough,” they wrote. “But the substantial assistance provided by Francis cannot be ignored, and the degree and significance of his cooperation cannot be overstated.”
Joseph Mancano, an attorney for one of the Navy officers whom Francis provided evidence against, called the proposed sentence “woefully inadequate” given the totality of his crimes.
“He flees the country and the government has to engage in a prisoner swap to get him back. That’s ridiculous,” Mancano said. “They were basically caught with their pants down.”
In a court filing, Douglas Sprague, Francis’s attorney, sought forgiveness for his client’s flight from justice, calling it “a horrendous mistake of judgment.”
“For many reasons, Leonard now sees this as one of the greatest mistakes in his life,” Sprague wrote. “Leonard understands that this decision was inexcusable and wrong.”
Sprague said Francis “panicked” because he feared being sent back to jail from his rented mansion, which meant he might never again see his mother, who was also in ailing health. (They were never reunited. She died in Malaysia in May.)
According to Sprague, Francis also worried that he might have to indirectly pay the price for mistakes made by federal prosecutors during a 2022 criminal trial of five Navy officers on corruption-related charges.
Though a jury convicted four of the officers, Sammartino determined that prosecutors had committed “flagrant and outrageous misconduct.” She later vacated the felony convictions. The Justice Department allowed the officers to plead guilty instead to a single misdemeanor each.
The misconduct tainted several other prosecutions, and the assistant U.S. attorneys handling Francis’s case were reassigned. As a result, Francis feared his cooperation agreement with the Justice Department might effectively fall apart and that he would end up with a lengthy prison sentence, according to his attorney.
As part of his original plea agreement with the government, Francis promised to forfeit $35 million in illicit profits that he had fleeced from the Navy. He paid $5 million of his debt nine years ago but still owes the rest, court records show.
