Malaysian contractor involved in $35M US Navy bribery scam flees house arrest

ISTANBUL

A Malaysian businessman at the center of one of the biggest US corruption scandals in US Navy history escaped his house arrest weeks before his sentencing and has been on the run from his San Diego home in California since Sunday, according to US officials.

Leonard Glenn Francis “cut off his GPS monitoring ankle bracelet,” Supervisory Deputy US Marshal Omar Castillo told daily the San Diego Union-Tribune on Monday.

Known as “Fat Leonard,” the alleged mastermind behind a corruption scandal in US Navy was three weeks away from being sentenced in the case. His sentencing date was set for Sept. 22.

Francis had stopped responding to texts and phone calls from his defense team, which later alerted Pretrial Services, the federal agency monitoring Francis.

He also has a history of health issues and was living in the Torrey Highlands neighborhood with three of his children as a tenant.

Several US security agencies are conducting a high-profile manhunt.

According to court documents, Francis ran the military contracting firm Glenn Defense Marine Asia from Singapore.

In 2013, he was detained in a San Diego hotel room as part of a federal operation.

“His company serviced visiting Navy ships in ports that he controlled across Southeast Asia, and for years he bribed US Navy officials — many of them in the 7th Fleet — for their influence and access to military intelligence, allowing him to earn millions of dollars from Navy contracts,” the US daily reported.

In 2015, he pleaded guilty, “admitting to the massive bribery conspiracy and also to swindling the Navy out of at least $35 million in overcharges.”

Court had allowed him to be detained at home due to his kidney cancer among other ailments since 2018.