Leonard Glenn Francis, aka “Fat Leonard,” will be sentenced next week after his conviction, dramatic escape from custody and recapture in one of the biggest bribery and corruption scandals in U.S. military history.
Francis is due in U.S. District Court in San Diego on Tuesday, 11 years after his initial arrest and two years after he cut off his ankle monitor and fled to Venezuela. He returned to U.S. custody in December after his apprehension by Venezuelan authorities and a prisoner swap between the two countries.
Under a plea agreement, the 6’3″, 350-pound Malaysian former defense contractor, who bribed hundreds of Navy officers for classified information for more than 20 years, could see less than a year of jail time, court documents show.
The agreement comes after “Fat Leonard” admitted to defrauding the U.S. government and American taxpayers out of at least $35 million dollars until he was caught in a sting operation in 2013. Following his arrest, nearly 1,000 Navy officers came under scrutiny, including 91 admirals.
‘FAT LEONARD’ CAPTURED; NAVY CORRUPTION SCANDAL MASTERMIND NABBED IN VENEZUELA AFTER WEEKS ON THE RUN
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Leonard Glenn Francis, aka “Fat Leonard,” pleaded guilty to bribery and fraud charges in one of the largest corruption scandals in U.S. military history. (U.S. Marshal Service)
Federal prosecutors brought criminal charges against 34 defendants, 33 of whom were convicted after Francis provided information to authorities while in U.S. custody. Francis could be sentenced to a maximum of 22 years in prison for his crimes, but the Department of Justice has sought a much lighter sentence in light of his cooperation, court documents show.
“Perhaps a harsher sentence would be justified given Francis’s egregious and prolonged criminal conduct, as well as his violation of the Court’s trust with respect to his release on medical furlough. But the substantial assistance provided by Francis cannot be ignored, and the degree and significance of his cooperation cannot be overstated regardless of what one thinks of the individual or his underlying criminal conduct,” U.S. Attorney Tara K. McGrath wrote.
Francis was arrested in a San Diego hotel nearly a decade ago as part of a federal sting operation. Investigators say he bilked the U.S. military out of more than $35 million by buying off dozens of top-ranking Navy officers with booze, sex, lavish parties and other gifts.
‘FAT LEONARD’ CUTS ANKLE MONITOR WEEKS BEFORE SENTENCING IN $35 MILLION US NAVY CORRUPTION SCANDAL
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Another undated photo of Leonard Glenn Francis.(Credit: courtesy Glenn Defense Marine Asia)
The scandal led to the conviction and sentencing of nearly two dozen Navy officials, defense contractors and others on various fraud and corruption charges. Investigators say that Francis, who owned and operated his family’s ship-servicing business, abused his position as a key contact for U.S. Navy shops at ports across Asia, wooing naval officers with Kobe beef, expensive cigars, concert tickets and wild sex parties at luxury hotels from Thailand to the Philippines.
He pleaded guilty to bribery and fraud charges in 2015 and was placed under house arrest in San Diego with a GPS monitor and security guards.
But while awaiting sentencing, Francis slipped out of his ankle monitor and disappeared.
US SWAPS MADURO ALLY WITH VENEZUELA FOR 10 AMERICANS, INCLUDING ‘FAT LEONARD’
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Undated photo of Leonard Glenn Francis, owner of the Singapore-based maritime services firm Glenn Defense Marine Asia.(Credit: NCIS-DCIS case files)
He failed to respond to messages and knocks at his door from federal officers who noticed that his monitor had gone offline. His home was found empty after police conducted a welfare check that afternoon.
“He was planning this out, that’s for sure,” U.S. Marshal Omar Castillo told the San Diego Union-Tribune at the time, adding that neighbors said they had seen a U-Haul being loaded up in the weeks prior to his escape.
The U.S. Marshals had offered a $40,000 reward for information leading to his capture.
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Francis was apprehended by Venezuelan authorities, who had been advised by Interpol that he was a wanted man. Venezuelan officials said he intended to reach Russia.
The Biden administration secured Francis’ extradition and the release of 10 other detainees by Venezuela in exchange for Alex Saab, a Columbian-born businessman and close ally of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who had been charged in the U.S. in a money laundering case, the Associated Press reported.
Fox News Digital’s Liz Friden, Jennifer Griffin, Brie Stimson and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Chris Pandolfo is a breaking news reporter for Fox News Digital. Send tips to chris.pandolfo@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @ChrisCPandolfo.
The Interior Department on Friday kick-started the process to streamline permitting for oil and gas development in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
Interior said it had received a petition for rulemaking from the Alaska Oil and Gas Association earlier this month. In response, the department plans to launch a 45-day public scoping period as the first step toward permitting oil projects in the reserve more quickly.
The AOGA petition argues that the environmental impacts of oil developments in the NPR-A, such as ConocoPhillips’ Willow project, have been “exhaustively analyzed” and similar new proposals shouldn’t have to undergo the same review.
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“The rulemaking will establish pre-defined criteria for defined and repeatable common activities with similar environmental effects that, when met by an applicant, will result in streamlined permitting for qualifying production sites,” Interior wrote in a notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement.
Paradise Valley 16-year-old Gadin Arun is one of three American boys who helped lead Team USA to victory at Junior Davis Cup Qualifying in Canada. The Junior Davis Cup, tennis’s premier international team event, will be held later this year, at a time and location yet to be announced. Arun, who is homeschooled, is the 26th ranked American in his age group, and second in the Southwest, according to the USTA.
By Alejandro Lazo, CalMatters
The Chevron refinery in Richmond is located behind a nearby neighborhood on Feb. 21, 2024. Photo by Loren Elliott for CalMatters
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.
California is considering handing oil refineries and other major polluters billions of dollars in free emission allowances just as the state says carbon reductions need to come faster than ever.
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In the last six months, two refineries have closed and gas prices have topped an average of $6 a gallon as the Iran-Israel war sent oil markets into turmoil. The oil and gas sector spent $10.3 million lobbying Sacramento in the first three months of the year, according to lobbying filings, with the Western States Petroleum Association and Chevron accounting for the bulk of it.
The result is a new proposal before the California Air Resources Board that would provide as much as $4 billion in new free emission permits to companies with half slated for the fossil fuel industry in exchange for commitments to invest in clean energy.
Environmentalists warn the proposal is a giveaway to Big Oil that would weaken California’s “cap-and-invest” program just as the state is relying on it to cut emissions and fund climate, housing and other programs. Anthony Martinez, a spokesman for Gov. Gavin Newsom, said the changes are necessary to keep the state’s carbon market “durable” and “affordable” amid mounting refinery closures.
The fight over California’s carbon market has exposed the political tensions at the heart of Newsom’s energy transition agenda. California is trying to preserve its climate ambitions while keeping gasoline affordable for drivers already facing the highest prices in the country. Critics say the air board’s proposal accomplishes neither goal.
“We are really concerned that this would significantly kneecap the program,” said Chloe Ames, a policy adviser with NextGen Policy.
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Weakening the backstop
Through California’s 13-year-old carbon market, major polluting companies must buy permits for every ton of greenhouse gases they emit, with the state capping total emissions year by year. Each permit is worth real money and companies can sell the ones they don’t use. The program is considered California’s climate backstop — the only state policy that sets a firm limit on greenhouse gas emissions.
At the heart of the dispute with environmentalists is a proposed subsidy program carved out of that carbon market. The air board, if it approves the proposal on May 28, would create a new pool of free pollution permits for refineries, cement plants and other big companies that pledge to invest in clean energy and efficiency projects.
The pool would be capped at 118.3 million permits — the same number the air board has said must come off the market for California to hit its 2030 climate target. Environmentalists say the proposal risks wiping out those reductions.
Berkeley energy economist Meredith Fowlie, who chairs an independent committee that oversees the carbon market, wrote in a recent analysis that the design would give qualifying refineries more free permits than they need to cover their emissions.
“One could use the word generous,” Fowlie said.
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Rajinder Sahota, the air board official overseeing the program, said the proposal would ensure emissions reductions. The new permits, she said, would only go to companies undertaking clean energy and efficiency projects and would be limited, temporary and rescinded if companies misuse them. The plan is meant to help keep refineries operating in California at a time of uncertainty, she added.
“We want to make sure that there’s reliable, affordable fuel for California consumers while the demand persists,” Sahota said.
But environmentalists say the air board has built in almost no accountability for how companies invest in those projects. Katelyn Roedner Sutter, state director for the Environmental Defense Fund, said the proposal “is based on proposed investment, not any guaranteed reduction.”
“That’s a red flag,” she said.
A climate money crunch
Quarterly auction revenue for state programs could drop from roughly $4 billion a year to about $2 billion under the proposal, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office.
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Sen. John Laird, the state Senate budget chair and a co-author of California’s original 2006 climate law, warned at a May 6 hearing that the proposal “flies against many things we negotiated just last fall” with the governor and could put the carbon market deal “back on the table.”
Not all lawmakers are critical. Assemblymembers Jacqui Irwin and Cottie Petrie-Norris, who respectively chair climate and energy committees, said the proposal “reflects the Legislature’s focus on affordability,” and urged the board to proceed “without delay.”
They pointed to an increase in the Climate Credit, the twice-yearly rebate that the carbon market funds on Californians’ utility bills; a UC Santa Barbara analysis, however, found the new subsidy could shrink the credit by as much as $1.7 billion under the proposal.
A separate, bipartisan group including Assemblymember David Alvarez, a Democrat, and Senator Suzette Valladares, a Republican, argues the purpose of the carbon market is to cut emissions, not raise money for programs.
Newsom struck an eleventh-hour deal with lawmakers last year that extended the state’s carbon market through 2045 and set the order of which state programs get auction money first.
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Under that plan, California’s high-speed rail project receives $1 billion a year before many other programs. Lawmakers also carved out a $1 billion annual pool for priorities they control themselves, but Newsom in January proposed committing that money to wildfire spending and other programs.
Last in line are programs lawmakers have spent years building into California’s climate agenda: affordable housing and transit-oriented development meant to reduce driving and climate pollution, rail and bus service, wildfire resilience, clean drinking water in poor communities and neighborhood pollution monitoring.
Newsom unveiled a revised state budget on May 14 that did not reflect the potential drop in carbon market revenue. Laird, in an interview, said the administration told him the revenue drop wouldn’t show up in the coming fiscal year.
Laird said he planned to “ground truth” that assessment in the weeks ahead. The hit “would still be a big hit the year after this budget year,” he added.
Big Oil’s biggest target
California’s carbon market became a central focus of the oil industry’s lobbying efforts after the air board released a January proposal sharply reducing free pollution permits for industry.
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Seven of the 10 highest-spending oil and gas lobbying groups in California pushed state officials on the proposal, state filings show. The petroleum association and Chevron mounted some of the industry’s most aggressive lobbying, pressing lawmakers, the governor’s office, the air board and the California Energy Commission on the plan.
The April plan raised free permits for most industries through 2030 above the January version, but deferred decisions on permits after 2030 to a future rulemaking.
Jim Stanley, a spokesman for the petroleum association, said the group has been pressing lawmakers, regulators and the governor’s office about “the potential consequences of a poorly structured cap-and-invest program.”
Chevron spokesman Ross Allen declined to comment beyond letters Chevron filed with the air board. Chevron initially warned the proposal threatened refinery survival in California. After last month’s revisions, the company is continuing to push for additional protections.
Zach Leary, a lobbyist for the petroleum association, said California needs to go further than even its latest proposal. He wants California to lock in a higher level of free permits permanently.
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“The state is acknowledging that affordability and ambition are not getting along very well right now,” Leary said.
Eddie Ahn, executive director of Brightline Defense, oversees community air sensors in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, Mission and South of Market neighborhoods funded through the state’s community air protection program. That program is among those that could lose state money if carbon market auctions decline under the proposal.
“If the funding is cut off, then convening groups of people on a monthly basis — that goes away,” Ahn said. “It means frontline communities get disconnected from environmental policy.”
This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.
