‘Fat Leonard’ jailed for 15 years and fined $20m over US Navy bribery scandal

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A Malaysian businessman has been jailed for his part in an unprecedented bribery scandal that rocked the US Navy.

Leonard Glenn Francis, 60, also known as “Fat Leonard,” was sentenced to 15 years in prison in federal court on Tuesday, according to the Department of Justice. He was also ordered to pay $20m in compensation to the US Navy and a $150,000 fine.

Francis’s company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, was also sentenced to five years probation and ordered to pay a $36m fine.

The convicted fraudster had admitted to a scam where he bribed senior Navy officials with millions of dollars in cash, sex workers, first-class travel expenses, luxurious hotel stays, watches, Spanish suckling pigs and Cuban cigars.

In exchange, Francis received extensive amounts of classified information from the Navy including on competitor naval bids, port visits and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, court documents reveal. He also overcharged the Navy $35m for his company’s services by routinely overbilling for fuel, tugboats, and sewage disposal.

In 2013, Francis was arrested and pleaded guilty to bribery and fraud charges two years later.

But, he then fled the US, cutting off his GPS monitor while on house arrest so as to avoid his sentencing hearing in September 2022.

He fled to Mexico, Cuba, and ultimately, Venezuela – where he was arrested and extradited to the US in December 2023.

Kelly P Mayo, director of the US Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), said in a statement on Tuesday: “Mr. Francis’ sentencing brings closure to an expansive fraud scheme … [that] ultimately cost the American taxpayer millions of dollars and weakened the public’s trust in some of our Navy’s senior leaders.”