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Navy Corruption Scandal’s ‘Fat Leonard’ Escapes House Arrest: U.S. Marshal

Federal authorities found the businessman’s broken GPS ankle bracelet in his home on Sunday morning.

A Malaysian businessman known for his part in the U.S. Navy’s worst corruption scandal cut off his ankle bracelet and escaped from his house arrest in San Diego over the weekend, authorities said. Leonard Glenn Francis, also known as Fat Leonard, pleaded guilty in 2015 to offering $500,000 in bribes to Navy officers to bring work to his shipyards. He was due to be sentenced in a few weeks’ time before he disappeared on Sunday. Supervisory deputy U.S. Marshal Omar Castillo said officers arrived at Francis’ house to find him gone, with a search turning up only broken parts of his GPS tracker. As well as cash, Francis was accused of offering trysts with sex workers, expensive meals, and Cuban cigars to Navy officers in order to benefit his military contracting company in Singapore—which was eventually alleged to have overcharged the Navy by some $35 million.