SAN DIEGO – Former military defense contractor Leonard “Fat Leonard” Francis was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison for masterminding a decade-long bribery scheme that ensnared dozens of U.S. Navy officers, federal prosecutors said. .

U.S. District Judge Janis L. Sammartino also ordered Francisco to pay $20 million in restitution to the Navy and a $150,000 fine, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He was also ordered to confiscate $35 million in “ill-gotten proceeds of his crimes,” according to the statement.

Prosecutors said the sentence is the result of Leonard’s first guilty plea in 2015 to bribery and fraud, his extensive cooperation with the government since then and another guilty plea Tuesday for failing to appear for his original sentencing hearing in 2022. .

Shortly before being sentenced in September 2022, Leonard cut off a GPS monitor he was wearing while under house arrest and fled the country. He was later arrested in Venezuela and brought back to the US in December 2023.

Sammartino sentenced him to more than 13 and a half years on the bribery and fraud charges plus 16 months for failure to appear, to be served consecutively.

“Leonard Francis lined his pockets with taxpayer dollars while undermining the integrity of the U.S. naval forces,” U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath said in Tuesday’s statement. “The impact of their deception and manipulation will be felt for a long time, but today justice has been served.”

Prosecutors said Francisco’s actions led to one of the largest bribery investigations in U.S. military history, resulting in the conviction and sentencing of nearly two dozen Navy officials, defense contractors and others on various charges. of fraud and corruption.

Francis, an enigmatic figure who stood 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighed 350 pounds, owned and operated his family’s ship services business, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, or GDMA, based in Singapore, which supplied food, water and fuel to the ships. The Malaysian defense contractor was a key contact for US Navy ships in Asian ports for more than two decades. During that time, Francis wooed naval officers with Kobe beef, expensive cigars, concert tickets, and wild sex parties at luxury hotels from Thailand to the Philippines.

In exchange, officials, including the first active-duty admiral convicted of a federal crime, covered up the scheme in which Francis overcharged for supplying ships or charged for bogus services at ports he controlled in Southeast Asia. The officers passed him classified information and even went so far as to redirect military vessels to ports that were lucrative for his Singapore-based naval services company.

In a federal operation, Francis was lured to San Diego under false pretenses and arrested at a hotel in September 2013. He pleaded guilty in 2015, admitting that he had offered more than $500,000 in cash bribes to Navy officials, contractors defense and others. Prosecutors say he defrauded the Navy of at least $35 million. As part of his plea deal, he cooperated with the investigation that led to the Navy convictions. He faced up to 25 years in prison.

While awaiting sentencing, Francis was hospitalized and treated for kidney cancer and other medical problems. After leaving the hospital, he was allowed to stay outside the jail in a rental house, under house arrest with a GPS ankle monitor and security guards.

But three weeks before his scheduled sentencing in September 2022, he cut off his monitor and brazenly escaped, triggering an international manhunt. Authorities said he fled to Mexico, arrived in Cuba and finally arrived in Venezuela.

he was arrested more than two weeks after his disappearance – captured before boarding a flight at the Simón Bolívar International Airport on the outskirts of Caracas. Venezuelan officials said he intended to reach Russia.

The cases were handled by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in an effort to be independent of the military justice system. But they have come under scrutiny.

He Four former Navy officers had their felony convictions overturned. following accusations of prosecutorial misconduct. Sammartino agreed to allow them to plead guilty to a misdemeanor and pay a $100 fine each.

Last year, Sammartino ruled that the lead federal prosecutor in the officers’ case committed “egregious misconduct” by withholding information from defense attorneys, but that it was not enough to dismiss the case.