SAN DIEGO — Leonard Glenn Francis, the Malaysian contractor often known as “Fats Leonard” on the middle of the worst bribery and corruption scheme in U.S. Navy historical past, should serve the rest of his 15-year jail sentence, in line with an appeals court docket ruling that turned official Monday.
The 61-year-old Francis, who pleaded responsible in San Diego federal court docket to fees associated to bribery and defrauding america out of a minimum of $35 million, appealed his sentence final yr. He argued partially that U.S. District Decide Janis Sammartino violated his Fifth Modification rights and abused her discretion in November 2024 when she handed down a sentence that was 40 months longer than what prosecutors beneficial.
Final month, simply 9 days after listening to oral arguments, a three-judge panel from the ninth U.S. Circuit Courtroom of Appeals unanimously affirmed Francis’ sentence. In a concise five-page memorandum, the panel dominated that Sammartino had a reasoned foundation for crafting the sentence the best way she did, that she appropriately weighed Francis’ well being points towards different sentencing elements and that she didn’t violate his Fifth Modification rights.
Francis had the chance to ask a bigger panel of ninth Circuit judges to rethink the case, however a deadline to make that request handed and the smaller panel’s ruling formally went into impact Monday, basically closing the enchantment.
An lawyer for Francis didn’t reply to a message in search of remark Tuesday. The U.S. lawyer’s workplace in San Diego declined to remark.
A brash con man whose huge dimension impressed his nickname, Francis was sentenced in November 2024 on fees of bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. out of a minimum of $35 million. He was additionally sentenced for a conviction of failure to seem in connection along with his 2022 escape from home arrest that sparked a global manhunt.
The Malaysian contractor admitted that he spent a long time bribing a rotating solid of officers from the Navy’s seventh Fleet within the Western Pacific, showering them with lavish dinners, luxurious resort rooms, top-shelf liquor, prostitutes and money. In flip, these officers steered ships to the Southeast Asian ports managed by Francis and his firm, Glenn Protection Marine Asia. Francis then charged the Navy closely inflated costs for his agency’s companies, corresponding to safety, tugboats, meals, water replenishment and trash elimination.
Federal authorities arrested Francis in 2013 throughout a sting operation in San Diego. Inside weeks, he started cooperating with the federal government and shortly turned the important thing witness in an enormous investigation of some 1,000 Navy personnel and the federal prosecution of 36 complete defendants, most of them Navy officers who took his bribes.
Francis and his firm pleaded responsible in 2015, however his sentencing was repeatedly delayed through the years as he continued serving to prosecutors with the sprawling case. Sammartino launched Francis on a medical furlough in 2018, however simply weeks earlier than he was set to lastly be sentenced in September 2022, he fled the nation. He finally spent 14 months in a Venezuelan jail earlier than being traded again to the U.S. as a part of a prisoner swap.
In his enchantment, Francis argued that he was unjustly sentenced to an extended jail time period than any of his co-defendants regardless of federal guidelines meant to restrict giant disparities when judges subject sentences in multi-defendant circumstances.
However the ninth Circuit judges dominated his sentence was not disproportionate to these of his co-defendants as a result of “Francis was the ‘mastermind’ of your entire operation, and he fled the nation previous to his unique sentencing date.”
Francis additionally argued on enchantment that Sammartino didn’t give sufficient consideration to his ailing well being nor correctly credit score him for his cooperation, which prosecutors described as unprecedented.
“The district court docket appropriately weighed Francis’s medical wants towards the opposite sentencing elements in making its dedication,” the ninth Circuit panel dominated. “That it didn’t afford these medical wants as a lot weight as Francis would favor doesn’t render the district court docket’s evaluation an abuse of discretion.”
The appeals judges additionally wrote that whereas the legislation required Sammartino to offer “substantial weight” to Francis’ cooperation, “that doesn’t bind the district court docket to the federal government’s sentencing suggestion.”
In the course of the sentencing listening to, Sammartino expressed considerations concerning the lack of solutions and accountability associated to Francis’ absconding from home arrest in 2022. “Neither you nor the federal government have defined how that escape occurred,” she mentioned on the time.
In his enchantment, Francis pointed to that comment as a violation of his Fifth Modification rights towards self-incrimination. However the ninth Circuit judges disagreed, writing that the which means of Sammartino’s assertion was ambiguous and thus no plain violation of his rights occurred.
Given the time Francis has already spent in jail and the credit score he acquired for durations spent in custody courting again to his 2013 arrest, he has roughly 5 years left on his sentence. The Federal Bureau of Prisons at the moment estimates his launch date to be in December 2030.
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