SAN DIEGO — The army contractor who pleaded responsible to orchestrating the “Fats Leonard” corruption scandal and was beneath home arrest in San Diego is now on the run after reducing off his GPS monitoring ankle bracelet over the weekend, federal authorities mentioned.
Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Omar Castillo mentioned Leonard Glenn Francis eliminated the tracker Sunday, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
After law enforcement officials discovered Francis’ house empty, the San Diego Regional Fugitive Job Drive and the Naval Felony Investigative Service started a high-profile search, the newspaper reported.
Castillo mentioned neighbors witnessed U-Haul shifting vehicles coming to and from Francis’ house within the days earlier than his escape.
Francis was arrested in San Diego in 2013 and pleaded responsible in 2015 to providing $500,000 in bribes to Navy officers. In alternate, the officers handed him categorized data and even went as far as redirecting army vessels to ports that had been profitable for his Singapore-based ship servicing firm.
Prosecutors say Francis and his firm overcharged the U.S. army by greater than $35 million for its companies.
Francis has been on home arrest since a minimum of 2018 and beneath the supervision of a federal company that displays defendants who’re out of custody till sentencing. He was set to be sentenced on the finish of month.
Francis’ protection legal professional, Devin Burstein, declined to remark to the Union-Tribune on Monday.
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