'Fat Leonard' sentenced to 15 years behind bars in US Navy corruption scandal
Leonard Francis has been sentenced to 15 years in prison in one of the worst corruption scandals in US Navy history.
In short:
Leonard Francis has been sentenced to 15 years in prison in the worst ever corruption scandal the US Navy has experienced.
The Malaysian military contractor wooed naval officers with decadent gifts and services.
A federal judge ordered Francis to pay $US20 million in restitution to the US Navy.
Malaysian military contractor Leonard Francis has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for his role in the worst ever corruption scandal the US Navy has experienced.
Francis, known as "Fat Leonard", ran the military contracting company Glenn Defense Marine Asia out of Singapore and was arrested in 2013.
A federal judge ordered Francis to pay $US20 million ($30 million) in restitution to the US Navy and to forfeit $US35 million in ill-gotten gains on Tuesday, local time, according to the US Attorney's office for the Southern District of California.
What did Fat Leonard do?
Francis's business GDMA supplied food, water and fuel to vessels and was a key contact for American navy ships at ports across Asia for decades.
He wooed naval officers with decadent gifts and services including Kobe beef, expensive cigars, concert tickets and wild sex parties at luxury hotels.
According to court records, Francis handed out more than $500,000 in cash bribes and also provided prostitutes, first class travel, luxury hotel stays, lavish meals and designer goods to these officers.
An excerpt from Leonard Francis's plea agreement detailing the nature of the bribes.
Why did he offer the bribes?
It was all for an exchange, whereby officers concealed the scheme in which Francis would overcharge for supplying ships or charge for fake services at ports he controlled in South-East Asia.
Officers gave him classified information and even redirected military vessels to ports that were lucrative for his ship servicing company.
Francis pleaded guilty in 2015 to offering bribes to naval officers which aimed to steer work to his shipyards in Asia-Pacific ports and overcharging the navy $US35 million.
He triggered one of the biggest bribery investigations in American military history which led to the conviction and sentencing of nearly two dozen navy and defence personnel, including the first active-duty admiral to be convicted of a federal crime.
'Justice has been served'
While he was arrested more than a decade ago, he fled house arrest weeks before his initial sentencing date in 2022.
Francis cut off the ankle bracelet he was wearing and fled to Venezuela.
Leonard Francis escaped from house arrest weeks before his initial sentencing date in 2022.
He was later arrested in Venezuela and returned to the US in December 2023 in a prisoner swap between the two countries.
Francis provided government investigators with detailed information which led to the conviction of a number of high-ranking US Navy officers as part of a plea agreement,
The federal judge sentenced Francis to more than 13 and a half years for the bribery and fraud charges plus another 16 months for failing to appear, with the sentences to be served consecutively.
"Leonard Francis lined his pockets with taxpayer dollars while undermining the integrity of U.S. Naval forces," US Attorney Tara McGrath said in a statement on Tuesday.
"The impact of his deceit and manipulation will be long felt, but justice has been served today."
AP/AFP
By：ABC(责任编辑：admin)
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