Military contractor ‘Fat Leonard’ accused of bribing US officials vanishes weeks before sentencing

‘They’ve let him slip right through their fingers’

Leonard Francis is a Malaysian business man who was at the heart of a sprawling multi-million dollar bribery scandal (Twitter/USMS San Diego)

An infamous Malaysian military contractor nicknamed “Fat Leonard”, who was at the centre of the US navy’s worst corruption scandal, has escaped house arrest just before his sentencing.

Leonard Glenn Francis had pleaded guilty in 2015 and was due to be sentenced in three weeks. But on Sunday morning, he had “cut off his GPS monitoring bracelet” from his ankle when US Marshals Service task force officers went to his residence, only to find it vacant.

Francis faces 25 years behind bars after being convicted of conspiracy, bribery, and fraud.

Francis was under the supervision of a federal agency called Pretrial Services, which flagged San Diego police to do a welfare check at his residence on Sunday after they received notification that the GPS device had been tampered with.

Police arrived at his empty residence and recovered the ankle bracelet.

A manhunt has been launched by the San Diego Regional Fugitive Task Force, along with help from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

Francis, a Malaysian national, ran a military contracting company out of Singapore and was at the heart of the sprawling multi-million dollar bribery scandal.

He had offered some $500,000 in bribes to officers to give him classified information and redirected military vessels to ports that were attractive for his ship-servicing company.

According to prosecutors, Francis and his company overcharged the US military by more than $35m for its services.

Four former Navy officers were convicted in the scandal in which Francis bribed them with, among other things, sex workers, Cuban cigars, Lady Gaga concert tickets and free hotel stays.

His defence attorney, Devin Burstein, told CBS 8 that he had “no comment” on his client’s escape.

San Diego attorney Michael Crowley, who represented one of the former Navy officers in the case, said to The San Diego Union Tribune that his escape was “very disappointing”.

“He started all this and we wanted him to testify since this was the crux of the government’s case. Here, they’ve let him slip right through their fingers.”

Neighbours in the gated community where he lived told authorities they saw U-Haul moving trucks going in and out of Francis’ home in recent days, said Supervisory Deputy US Marshal Omar Castillo.

“He was planning this out, that’s for sure,” Mr Castillo said, adding high security will be placed at international borders and airports.

Leonard was arrested in 2013, but released to house arrest in 2018 after he suffered numerous health problems, including kidney cancer.