SAN DIEGO — Three weeks earlier than he confronted sentencing, the Malaysian protection contractor on the middle of one of many largest bribery investigations in U.S. army historical past made an escape as gorgeous and brazen because the case itself: U-Haul vehicles had been seen at his dwelling in a tony San Diego neighborhood earlier than Leonard Glenn Francis, often called “Fats Leonard,” snipped off his ankle monitor and disappeared.
Practically a dozen U.S. legislation enforcement businesses had been trying to find Francis on Tuesday. However officers acknowledged he could already be in Mexico, and probably on his approach again to Asia.
4 years in the past, U.S. District Court docket Decide Janis Sammartino feared Francis may run off when she turned down his lawyer’s request to permit him to be below home arrest with out round the clock safety guards watching the ailing protection contractor. On the time, Francis was cooperating with prosecutors as they pursued prices in opposition to dozens of Navy officers who accepted bribes in trade for labeled data that gave Francis’ ship servicing enterprise in Asia an edge in getting army contracts.
When requested in regards to the daring escape Tuesday, his lawyer, Devin Burstein, who pushed for extra leniency for his shopper, mentioned: “Presently, I’ve no remark, sorry.”
Sammartino repeatedly maintained that Francis, who was sick and wanted medical care, may solely stay below home arrest if non-public safety guards had been on website. At one level she expressed concern that if he had been to flee and ended up “again in Malaysia for no matter motive,” her identify would come up if anybody requested “who let someone do that with none safety,” in line with a transcript of a closed-door listening to in February 2018 that was unsealed in January.
She raised comparable considerations in one other listening to on Dec. 17, 2020, after receiving a report that the house was left with out anybody guarding it for practically three hours, in line with the courtroom transcript. The guard mentioned he had been on a protracted lunch break, and Francis apologized to the choose for the mishap.
It was unclear if round the clock safety guards had been nonetheless in place this weekend.
The U.S. Lawyer’s workplace in San Diego declined to remark, referring calls to the U.S. Marshals Service. Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal, Omar Castillo, mentioned his officers discovered no safety officers on the dwelling once they arrived Sunday afternoon, practically seven hours after Francis is believed to have eliminated his ankle monitor with heavy scissors. The gadget was discovered within the dwelling.
Castillo mentioned somebody referred to as the San Diego police division, which despatched officers to the house shortly earlier than 2 p.m. to test on it. Castillo mentioned he didn’t know who made the decision. After discovering the house empty, police contacted U.S. Pre-Trial Providers, the federal company in command of his confinement, which then referred to as the U.S. Marshals Service.
Castillo mentioned he didn’t know if safety guards had been nonetheless ordered to be there. He mentioned neighbors reported seeing U-Haul vehicles coming and going from the house one or two days earlier than the escape. Pre-Trial Providers declined to remark or reply questions.
The house is a couple of 40-minute drive from the Mexican border, the place autos stream into Tijuana and are solely stopped randomly. Castillo mentioned Mexican authorities have been placed on alert and 10 U.S. legislation enforcement businesses at native, state and federal ranges had been trying to find Francis on Tuesday.
Castillo mentioned GPS ankle screens are simple to take away and don’t cease individuals from escaping. He added that he wouldn’t be stunned if Francis was already in Mexico since it’s simple to drive into the nation and never be stopped.
“That is the chance that’s taken when defendants are on GPS monitoring, you realize,” he mentioned. “They don’t all reduce off their GPS bracelets, however this may occur.”
It was a stunning flip in a case already filled with surprising revelations.
Practically a decade in the past, Francis was arrested in a San Diego resort as a part of a federal sting operation. Investigators say he and his firm, Glenn Protection Marine Asia, bilked the Navy out of greater than $35 million by shopping for off dozens of top-ranking Navy officers with booze, intercourse, lavish events and different items. In trade the officers, together with the primary active-duty admiral to be convicted of a federal crime, hid the scheme through which Francis would overcharge for supplying ships or cost for pretend providers at ports he managed in Southeast Asia.
The case, which delved into salacious particulars about service members dishonest on their wives and looking for out prostitutes, was a humiliation to the Pentagon. It was prosecuted by the U.S. lawyer’s workplace, which supplied an unbiased authority from the army justice system.
Francis was scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 22 after working with prosecutors for years, resulting in dozens of convictions.
All that cooperation will imply nothing now, however Francis could also be exhausting to catch, given his wealth and huge worldwide connections, mentioned Jason Forge, a former federal prosecutor in San Diego who labored on quite a lot of high-profile corruption circumstances.
“He would not strike me as the kind of particular person below these circumstances to make a spontaneous choice,” Forge mentioned. “I am assuming this implies he has deliberate issues out and he has the wherewithal to take action. He’ll in all probability be a free chicken for awhile.”
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