Fat Leonard, a proven trickster, fell into a trap this week. Venezuelan authorities made him believe his freedom was near, and the former military contractor, protagonist of one of the biggest corruption scandals in U.S. Navy history, let his mother know. They would release him and he would be with her soon, he told her.
His prison guards made him believe this lie to prevent him from challenging a high-voltage diplomatic and political decision: the exchange negotiated for months in secret between Venezuela and the United States that allowed Alex Saab, President Nicolás Maduro's alleged frontman, to return to Caracas as a hero. .
Leonard Glenn Francis was part of the package that Washington demanded in exchange for Saab. Other commitments included the denaturalization of 10 U.S. citizens, six of whom the Joe Biden administration said were “unjustifiably” imprisoned in the Latin American country; the release of 21 Venezuelan opponents of the Chavista regime and the lifting of three arrest warrants against as many dissidents.
Known in the luxury hotels of Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong as Fat Leonard, El Gordo Leonard, because of his enormous figure (1.87 meters tall, he weighed more than 200 kilos), Francis realized that he had been deceived when it was too late was. According to the Washington Post, which revealed interesting details of his extradition, he believed he was being released so he could undergo urgent medical treatments. Also that he would be free until the end of the year. Finally, it was seen on the island of Canoan, which is part of the Republic of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in the Caribbean Sea and whose government is an ally of Venezuela. Saab from Miami was also sent there.
Alex Saab leaves the Miraflores Palace in Caracas on Wednesday with his family and Nicolás Maduro after being released as part of a prisoner exchange. LEONARDO FERNANDEZ VILORIA (Portal)
Such was the notoriety that this wealthy Malaysian citizen gained for his criminal exploits over the last decade that the fact that Washington captured his head in exchange for Saab made many headlines in the American press; Media headlines defining Saab, extradited in 2021 from Cape Verde on the northwest coast of Africa, as “a Venezuelan diplomat accused of money laundering in Florida.” As a defense contractor, Leonard stole $35 million (around 32 million euros) from the US Navy's Seventh Fleet stationed in the Pacific between 2006 and 2013, according to prosecutors.
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Bribery with money and luxury goods
He was arrested this year in San Diego, where US authorities lured him with another deception: They made him believe that some admirals were waiting for him with juicy offers. A hundred agents took part in the operation. He pleaded guilty in 2015 to bribing “countless public officials” and conspiring to bribe and defraud the United States. With his denunciations he tried to take around 600 naval personnel with him. More than 30 pleaded guilty to these crimes. Five sailors were court-martialed, seven admirals were convicted, and the investigation found that dozens of officers had broken the law.
In 2022, Leonard escaped house arrest in San Diego, where he was allowed to live under surveillance while awaiting completion of his 25-year sentence. To escape, he broke the ankle bracelet they had used to geolocate him. He first traveled to Mexico and then crossed Cuba. Two weeks later he was arrested at Caracas airport as he was about to board a flight to Russia, the country where he had requested asylum. Because diplomatic relations between Washington and Caracas are broken, US authorities have been unable to process his extradition.
According to the verdict, at the time that 59-year-old Fat Leonard was engaging in the high life of crime, he bribed cash (at least half a million dollars), prostitutes, trips and gifts such as “expensive boxes of Cuban and Spanish cigars.” “Piglets” to around thirty Navy officials who were supposed to assist him in his fraudulent operations, which cost the Navy tens of millions of dollars.
At the helm of his company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, he won contracts by submitting projects whose budgets were so low as to be unrealistic, but which achieved their goal: eliminating his competitors in the competitions. Then came more bribes to issue false invoices, which resulted in the money he received increasing significantly above the price accepted at the place of origin. In return for his gifts, he also received classified material on the movements of American ships and submarines, data on confidential contracts, and tips on ongoing police investigations. All this information was used profitably.
According to Post investigative journalist Craig Whitlock, he also “apparently arranged his moles.” [en la Armada] “To divert aircraft carriers to ports it controls in Southeast Asia to more easily defraud the Navy for services such as fuel, tugboats, barges, food, water and sanitation.”
Last Thursday, Leonard was already in Miami waiting to be sent back to San Diego. His punishment awaits him there, almost nine years after his guilty plea. But this time he has to wait for her in the shadows of a federal prison.
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