A navy contractor often known as “Fats Leonard,” who pleaded responsible to orchestrating a significant U.S. Navy corruption scandal, is on the run after slicing off his GPS monitoring ankle bracelet and fleeing home arrest in San Diego over the weekend, authorities mentioned.
Leonard Glenn Francis eliminated his tracker on Sunday, prompting a welfare examine, Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Omar Castillo mentioned Monday.
Officers arrived at Francis’ dwelling to seek out it empty, triggering a high-profile search, Castillo mentioned. The information was first reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Neighbors within the space informed U.S. Marshals investigating the disappearance that a number of U-Haul vans had been out and in of the home all week lengthy, Castillo mentioned. He mentioned it appeared clear Francis had been planning his escape for a while.
Francis was arrested in 2013 and pleaded responsible in 2015 to providing $500,000 in bribes to Navy officers, who, in trade, shared categorised data with him, along with redirecting navy vessels to ports that might be helpful for his Singapore-based ship servicing firm.
Prosecutors say Francis and his agency overcharged the U.S. navy by greater than $35 million for its companies.
The previous navy contractor had been underneath home arrest since no less than 2018 and was because of be sentenced on the finish of the month.
Castillo mentioned Francis’ escape was a pretrial violation, successfully for bail-jumping.
He couldn’t say the place Francis could be, however mentioned officers would share updates as they grew to become out there.
Devin Burstein, the protection legal professional showing to symbolize Francis, didn’t instantly reply to an in a single day request for remark from NBC Information.
The Related Press contributed.
