@USMSSanDiego
San Diego — The navy contractor who pleaded responsible to orchestrating the “Fat Leonard” corruption scandal and was underneath house arrest in San Diego is now on the run after slicing off his GPS monitoring ankle bracelet over the weekend, federal authorities stated.
Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Omar Castillo told CBS San Diego affiliate KFMB-TV that Leonard Glenn Francis eliminated the tracker Sunday.
After law enforcement officials discovered Francis’ dwelling empty, the San Diego Regional Fugitive Task Force and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service started a high-profile search, the station says, including that officers did get well the ankle bracelet.
Castillo stated neighbors witnessed U-Haul shifting vehicles coming to and from Francis’ dwelling in the days earlier than his escape. KFMB says they didn’t report the exercise to authorities.
Law enforcement businesses worldwide have been getting alerts to be on the lookout for Francis, together with officers at airports and border checkpoints, KFMB factors out. But officers with the U.S. Marshals conceded to the station that Francis could possibly be wherever at this level.
Francis’ protection lawyer, Devin Burstein, declined to remark to KFMB.
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 labeled information and even went as far as redirecting navy vessels to ports that have been profitable for his Singapore-based ship servicing firm.
Prosecutors say Francis and his firm overcharged the U.S. navy by greater than $35 million for its providers.
KFMB calls it one among the greatest public corruption scandals in U.S. navy historical past.
Francis has been on house arrest since at the very least 2018 and underneath the supervision of a federal company that screens defendants who’re out of custody till sentencing. He was set to be sentenced at the finish of month and confronted as much as 25 years behind bars, KFMB says.
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