The Leak of Leonard ‘El Gordo’, the Biggest Scam in the US Navy

Date:

The contractor was under house arrest for bribing naval officials to obtain military contracts and inflating prices and had co-operated in charges against dozens of senior naval commanders.

The intellectual author of the worst public corruption scandal in U.S. Navy history, Leonard Glenn Francis, nicknamed Leonard “El Gordo,” has been starring in a movie leak since he disappeared from his San Diego home on Sunday, where he was serving house arrest. Just three weeks after being convicted by a court, Francis fled his mansion in the prominent Torrey Highlands neighborhood of the Californian city after he managed to cut the electronic tracking bracelet strapped to one of his ankles and disappeared without a trace.

Alarmed after detecting an anomaly in the bracelet, the federal agency Pretrial Services, which was responsible for overseeing arrest compliance, notified police, who upon arrival found the property empty and parts of the broken tracking device discovered. Omar Castillo, the bailiff in charge of the detainee, has stated that Leonard ‘El Gordo’ had been planning the escape for some time.

Border crossings and international airports are on high alert, although Castillo said it is likely that the fugitive has already crossed the southern border and is in Mexico. Leonard Glenn Francis, a Malaysian defense contractor who had been under house arrest in San Diego for the past few years, was detained for a years-long saga of large-scale bribery. He paid government officials, among other things, to turn a blind eye to overseeing the Navy’s supply contracts at certain international ports in Asia-Pacific.

Leonard “El Gordo” pleaded guilty in 2015, but confessed only to giving $500,000 in bribes to Navy officials to send military ships to his dockyards for maintenance. He also made other kinds of extra payments in spices, such as sex parties, lavish gifts and ostentatious dinners, to keep corrupt officials happy, which will give him leverage and privileged documentation on army contracts. Francis and his consortium of naval companies are also accused of overcharging the armed forces for a series of irregular orders worth $35 million.

According to the “San Diego Union-Tribune,” residents of the affluent gated community reported seeing moving trucks in and out of Leonard “El Gordo”‘s home in the days before his escape. Yet no one nearby thought this transit of workers suspicious or reported it to authorities, as no one knew that the tenant of the multimillion-dollar home in their neighborhood was actually a businessman arrested for corruption. ‘El Gordo’ lived in a luxury building with five bedrooms and seven bathrooms.

That same Sunday, one of his attorneys called the San Diego Police Department about 4 to 2 a.m. to report that he was not responding to his calls or messages. He asked the officers to make a check-up visit to the residence, as the detainee had a history of health problems. After that, Francis’ legal defense team went to the building.

Police and marshals entered through an unlocked gate in a central courtyard of the property and found the house empty with the remains of the electronic bracelet. From there, the escape was reported and the San Diego Marshals Service and Fugitive Search Team was activated, which launched an intense, high-profile arrest operation. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which led the controversial case against Francis more than a decade ago, is also involved in the operation. Police are monitoring state highways and border crossings into Mexico to try to locate moving trucks belonging to the well-known U-Haul company that were seen near the mansion.

Francis, a Malaysian citizen who ran his military contracting firm Glenn Defense Marine Asia from Singapore, was detained in a San Diego hotel room in 2013 as part of a federal raid. Apart from obtaining illegal awards and charging excessive fees for the overhaul of the ships these soldiers forwarded to him, ‘El Gordo’ supplied food, water and fuel to the naval vessels in the Pacific Ocean passing through Malaysia.

For their part, the circle of officers involved in the scam called themselves “The Lion King Harem”, the “Brotherhood” or “Wolf Pack” (Lion’s King Harem, Brotherhood, Wolfpack) and were looking for other soldiers to take them on. to include in your network of customers.

Under court orders made public earlier this year, U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino had called for 24-hour security at Francis’s home. This service, provided by an unidentified private company, was paid for by the suspect himself. And it wasn’t a whim. “El Gordo” has cooperated with the federal investigation and has testified against others involved in the plot, including senior naval officers. Four of them have already been convicted and another 23, including military commanders and contractors, have pleaded guilty. The sentencing for Francis is scheduled for September 22.

The location of the residence has long been a secret, even from the businessman’s team of lawyers, who are also defending others involved in the scandal. Three of “El Gordo’s” children lived with him, although it is not clear if they were still at the mansion on Sunday. There were several medical crises, including kidney cancer, which led to the defendant being released on probation and under house arrest since at least 2018.

Source: La Verdad

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Share post:

Subscribe

Popular

More like this
Related

Stricter controls – police warn of busy Easter travel weekend

There will be many day trippers and holidaymakers in...

Billionaire fraud – 25 years in prison for ex-crypto king Bankman-Fried

The founder of the collapsed crypto exchange FTX has...

Also applies to blondies: Paris is now taking action against hairstyle discrimination

France now wants to comprehensively combat discrimination against people...