Central figure sentenced in Navy's bribery scandal

S1: Welcome in San Diego , it's Jade Hindman. There are new developments in the biggest Navy scandal in history as Fat Leonard is sentenced. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. Back in 2015 , military contractor Leonard Francis pled guilty to bribery and conspiracy charges and what was considered the worst corruption scandal in Navy history. But yesterday , after more than a decade , Francis was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison. Here , to break down the results of this sentencing and the details of the infamous Fat Leonard scandal is KPBS military and veteran affairs reporter Andrew Dyer. Andrew , welcome. Hi.

S2: Hi. Thanks for having me.

S1: So , Andrew , remind us who Leonard Francis is.

S2: So Francis is a Malaysian citizen. He owned a company called Glenn Defence Marine Asia. And from the early 90s he provided husbandry , ship husbandry , your services for the Navy whenever their ships would pull into foreign ports in the western Pacific. And , um , over the years , he grew the number of ports that he operated in. And , um , you know , he would give the ships everything they needed when they're in a port visit , you know , food , supplies , water , uh , security. He would have rental cars for , for some of the officers , cell phones , sometimes water taxi or ferries when the ships had to anchor out. Just everything a ship needed when it pulls into port. Uh , Leonard's company was there to provide it , and oftentimes Leonard himself would be there , um , helping out.

S1:

S2: And at one time he's said to have been about £400. Now he's a noticeably slimmer today. He's had some health issues and , uh , he's he's not the same.

S1: Tell me , because he avoided sentencing for more than two years and even fled the country at one point.

S2: So his sentencing was delayed , you know , legitimately because he was helping the government out. And he's getting you know , he's getting brownie points for for helping them on all these cases. But then once the cases were all done and it was time for him to be sentenced , uh , you know , he had been medically furloughed from custody in 2017. He was living in a house in San Diego that he'd rented getting treatment for for renal cancer. And , you know , just before he was due to , to be sentenced , he , he left , he he fled. He ended up in Venezuela where he was taken into custody by Venezuelan authorities. And he was in Venezuela for a little more than one year before being returned to the US in a prisoner swap in December. Mhm.

S1:

S2: He was given a $150,000 fine and ordered to pay $20 million in restitution. Now he has been locked up previously. So with time served , he's looking at eight and a half years more behind bars.

S1: Did he plead guilty to those to the other charges ? Yes.

S2: He pleaded guilty to the. The main charges , of course , are the conspiracy and bribery charges back in 2017. He was also charged today with failure to appear. Now this is related to his flight in 2022. So instead of charging him with escape , they charged him with failing to appear in court at that hearing. And this is some kind of behind the scenes lawyering going on. They they did this for reasons of the sentencing. This isn't , um , as as the prosecutor said in court today , this wasn't lessening punishment for Francis. This was , um , based on the sentencing guidelines. This charge is what made sense to them. Yeah.

S1:

S2: They had asked for a sentence of 140 months , which is , you know , almost 12 years. So with time served , you know , that would have had him in , in prison for , you know , a handful of more years. But , you know , Judge Janice Sammartino , she has overseen every single one of these cases in the Glen defense Marine Asia slash Fat Leonard case. So , you know , more than 30 defendants , most of them pleaded guilty to to felonies. There was a trial that she presided over. So , you know , she said that , you know , this has been a this day's been a long time coming. And , you know , she acknowledged , you know , that Francis had , um , you know , helped the government quite a bit. Um , this is why prosecutors had asked for a lighter touch , because his level of cooperation. They said it was unprecedented. But despite that unprecedented level of cooperation , the judge said that , um , you know , the guidelines and based on him Absconding in 2022 , you know , brought her to to that decision that the 15 year sentence and.

S1: You were in the courtroom Tuesday.

S2: But , you know , Francis asked the judge for mercy. So he's 60 years old. He's had health issues. You know , he was furloughed because of he had cancer , renal cancer. And his attorney told the judge that he's had one of his kidneys removed. He's had his gallbladder removed. You know , it's been reported he had bariatric surgery while on furlough. So , you know , he's had a lot of health issues , um , while he's been in custody , both his mother and father have died. He has three younger children. And he basically hasn't been part of their lives because he's , you know , he was arrested in 2013. So it's been more than ten years that he's been been here. You know , he asked for mercy. He said he he he apologized for his crimes. He said he accepts responsibility , but he asked the judge to to be merciful. Now , when she delivered her sentence , there really wasn't a visible reaction. There was. It wasn't an emotional , uh , moment in the courtroom. It was very matter of fact , very businesslike. You know , this this case is just been going on , I think , so long. And the people involved have been in court so much in the case that it's it's really just , uh , seemed like business as usual.

S1: Welcome back to KPBS midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman with Andrew Dyer. Our military and veterans affairs reporter for KPBS. And we are talking about the Fat Leonard case.

S2: Um , either it faced administrative punishment. Um , there were a couple of court martials , you know , in all , the Navy investigated 600 officers , almost 100 of them were admirals. Um , so , you know , Leonard Francis was a important person to the Navy in the Pacific. And basically , if you were a Navy leader in the 1990s and the 2000s , you were in the same circle as Leonard Francis because he was just such a big part of what the Navy was doing over there.

S1: Wow , this was a large enterprise. Well , government attorneys say there were serious issues in prosecuting this case , including allegations of trial misconduct. What can you tell us about that ? Well , this.

S2: Stems from the prosecution of a handful of Seventh Fleet officers. Uh , five went to trial. Four were found guilty. The fifth that did not reach a verdict. But it came to light that some testimony had been withheld from the defense with potential exculpatory evidence. So because , you know , the justice system takes these things very seriously. Um , and even though none of these officers , it's not like they were innocent of anything , but because they have a right to due process. So the judge had no kind of no choice but to overturn those convictions , those felony convictions , and instead they pleaded guilty to misdemeanors and received $100 fines.

S1: Well , this case has seen a lot of twists and turns over the years.

S2: It's for. I think for most people , yes. This is the book end of a very long legal story that started in 2013 when he was arrested. Um , there are some lingering questions because of that prosecutorial misconduct we talked about. Potentially , all of these guilty pleas could be taken back to court because of of that. Now , I don't know that they will be , uh , perhaps not some may , but that is is to be determined down the road. Um , it's not clear that that that that will happen , but it's definitely possible.

S1: And you've been covering this story for so long.

S2: It's almost cartoonish. He's like a cartoon villain. The level of corruption that he was able to get away with for so long. You know , we're not just talking about bribing a handful of people. We're talking about systemic corruption at the top of the Navy. Now , this is the seventh fleet. This is our forward deployed naval force. This is the most important thing that the US Navy does at sea is , is is project power in the Western Pacific. Also during the global war on terror , these ships were going over into the Persian Gulf and in the Middle East. So , you know , these were the top of the Navy. And for years he cultivated co-conspirators. And when one co-conspirator would rotate somewhere else , they would help him recruit the next guy. So , um , it's really remarkable the scope and the scale of everything. And that he got away with it for so very long. NCIS opened more than a dozen investigations into Leonard and his company over the years. People were blowing the whistle on him , but through various means , most of them , you know , extralegal , uh , he he did have a mole working inside NCIS who would warn him of this stuff. And , you know , it just took so long to to bring him to justice. So I think , you know , looking at the case from , you know , that 10,000 foot perspective , you know , that's still the thing that that , you know , gobsmacked me is , is just the scope of it. Wow.

S1: Wow. Well , I've been speaking with Andrew Dyer , KPBS military and Veterans Affairs reporter Andrew , thanks so much for breaking that down. Thank you.