Former military defense contractor Leonard “Fat Leonard” Francis has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for masterminding a decade-long bribery scheme that swept up dozens of U.S. Navy officers. Federal prosecutors say a judge on Tuesday also ordered Francis to pay $20 million in restitution to the Navy and a $150,000 fine.
FILE - This undated photo provided by the U.S. Marshals Service shows Leonard Francis . was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison for masterminding a decade-long bribery scheme that swept up dozens of U.S. Navy officers, federal prosecutors said.
Shortly before he was due to be sentenced in September 2022, Francis cut off a GPS monitor he was wearing while under house arrest and fled the country. He was later arrested in Venezuela and brought back to the U.S. in December 2023. Sprague, who sought a sentence of just under nine years, argued that his client’s cooperation should warrant a lesser sentence,“Unfortunately, as Leonard acknowledged in his early guilty plea and immediate cooperation, his greed drove him to commit bribery and to commit fraud,” Sprague said.
In exchange, officers, including the first active-duty admiral to be convicted of a federal crime, concealed the scheme in which Francis would overcharge for supplying ships or charge for fake services at ports he controlled in Southeast Asia. The officers passed him classified information and even went so far as redirecting military vessels to ports that were lucrative for his Singapore-based ship servicing company.
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