Malaysian businessman Leonard Glenn Francis was to be sentenced this month for defrauding the US Navy
The contractor was under house arrest for bribing Navy officials to obtain military contracts and inflate prices and had collaborated in the indictment against dozens of senior naval commanders.
The intellectual author of the worst public corruption scandal in the history of the US Navy, Leonard Glenn Francis, nicknamed Leonard ‘El Gordo’, has starred in a movie leak since he disappeared on Sunday from his residence in San Diego, where he was serving house arrest . Just three weeks after being sentenced by a court, Francis fled his mansion in the prominent Torrey Highlands neighborhood of the Californian city after managing to cut the electronic location bracelet tied to one of his ankles and disappear without a trace. .
Alerted after detecting an anomaly in the bracelet, the federal agency Pretrial Services, which was in charge of monitoring compliance with the arrest, notified the police authorities who, upon arrival, found the property empty and discovered parts of the broken tracking device. Omar Castillo, the bailiff responsible for the detainee, has declared that Leonard ‘El Gordo’ had been planning the escape for some time.
Border crossings and international airports are on high alert, although, according to Castillo, it is likely that the fugitive has already crossed the southern border and is in Mexico. Leonard Glenn Francis, a Malaysian defense contractor who had been under house arrest in San Diego in recent years, was being held for a years-long saga of large-scale bribery. Among other crimes, he paid government officials to turn a blind eye to overseeing Navy supply contracts at certain Asian Pacific international ports.
Leonard ‘El Gordo’ pleaded guilty in 2015, but only confessed to giving $500,000 in bribes to Navy officials to send military ships for maintenance to his shipyards. He also made other types of extra payments in spices, such as sex parties, luxury gifts and ostentatious dinners, in order to keep corrupt officials satisfied and that will provide him with influence and privileged documentation on Army contracts. Francis and his consortium of naval companies are also accused of charging the Armed Forces excessive amounts for a series of irregular orders valued at 35 million dollars.
According to the ‘San Diego Union-Tribune’, residents of the affluent gated community reported seeing moving trucks going in and out of Leonard ‘El Gordo”s house in the days before his escape. Even so, no one in the neighborhood found this transit of employees suspicious or reported it to the authorities since no one knew that the tenant of the multimillion-dollar residence in their neighborhood was actually a businessman arrested for corruption. ‘El Gordo’ lived in a luxurious building with five bedrooms and seven bathrooms.
That same Sunday, one of his lawyers called the San Diego Police around four to two in the afternoon to report that he was not responding to his calls or messages. He asked the agents to carry out a control visit at the home since the detainee had a history of health problems. After that, Francis’ legal defense team went to the building.
Police and marshals entered through an unlocked gate in a central courtyard of the property and found the house empty with the remains of the electronic bracelet. From there, the escape was reported and activated the San Diego Marshals Service and Fugitive Search Team, which launched an intense, high-profile apprehension operation. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which led the controversial case against Francis more than a decade ago, has also been involved in the operation. Police track state highways and border crossings with Mexico to try to locate moving trucks from the well-known U-Haul company that were seen at the mansion.
The Lion King’s harem
Francis, a Malaysian national who ran his military contracting firm Glenn Defense Marine Asia from Singapore, was detained in a San Diego hotel room in 2013 as part of a federal raid. Apart from obtaining illegal awards and charging excessive fees for the revision of the ships that these soldiers redirected to him, ‘El Gordo’ supplied food, water and fuel to the Navy ships in the Pacific that transited through Malaysia.
For their part, the circle of officers involved in the scam called themselves “The Lion King Harem”, the “Brotherhood” or “Wolf Pack” (Lion’s King Harem, Brotherhood, Wolfpack) and were looking for other soldiers to Incorporate them into your client network.
Under court orders made public earlier this year, US District Judge Janis Sammartino had called for 24-hour security at Francis’ home. This service, provided by an unidentified private company, was paid by the accused himself. And it wasn’t a whim. “El Gordo” has collaborated in the federal investigation and testified against others involved in the plot, including high-ranking naval officers. Four of them have already been sentenced and another 23, including military commanders and contractors, have pleaded guilty. Sentencing for Francis is scheduled for September 22.
The location of the residence has been a secret for a long time, even for the businessman’s team of lawyers, who are also defending others involved in the scandal. Three of “El Gordo’s” children had been living with him, although it is not clear if they were still in the mansion on Sunday. There were several medical crises, including kidney cancer, which caused the defendant to be released on probation and had been under house arrest since at least 2018.