Leonard Glenn Francis, known as Fat Leonard, who pleaded guilty in 2015 to offering $500,000 in bribes to Navy officers, has escaped house arrest after cutting off his monitoring bracelet in San Diego. Scheduled to be sentenced in a few weeks, Francis fled his home Sunday morning and left behind parts of his broken GPS tracker bracelet, the Guardian reports. Held at a private residence because of various health problems, including kidney cancer, Francis acted as a cooperating witness and was due to be sentenced on September 22. According to neighbors U-Haul removal trucks were outside the property days leading up to his escape. “He was planning this out, that’s for sure,” said Deputy U.S. Marshal Omar Castillo.
Francis, who ran a military contracting company in Singapore and is the leading figure in what is known to be the Navy’s worst corruption scandal, is accused of offering the service of sex workers, as well as using expensive meals that cost thousands of dollars to gain insider information and influence. Naval officers were given luxury gifts of wine, Cuban cigars and sums of cash. In return, classified information was shared and military vessels were redirected to ports where his company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, could charge fake tariffs and fees. The Navy was overcharged by Francis and his company, which provided fuel, food and water, by almost $35 million.
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