A San Diego judge on Tuesday dismissed the felony convictions of five military officers who had admitted to accepting bribes from Leonard Glenn 'Fat Leonard' Francis.
Leonard Glenn Francis, better known as 'Fat Leonard,' is a 6 feet, 3 inch tall, 350 pound former Malaysian defense contractor who bribed hundreds of Navy officers for classified information for more than 20 years. He eventually defrauded the U.S. government and American taxpayers out of at least $35 million dollars until he was caught in a sting operation in 2013. After Francis’ arrest, nearly 1,000 Navy officers came under scrutiny, including 91 admirals.
Francis' bribing did not stop when he was arrested. Later hospitalized and treated for cancer, he convinced the judge to let him go on house arrest to have a more comfortable recovery. In 2022, he cut off his GBS tracker and called an Uber to escape house arrest. He ended up in Tijuana, Mexico, and eventually made his way to Venezuela, where he was captured and sent back to the U.S. in a prisoner swap in December 2023.
Most of these people who were Leonard's informants and moles said they all knew what they were doing was wrong… but they just frankly thought they would never get caught,' Whitlock said.
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