Fugitive military contractor Leonard Glenn "Fat Leonard" Francis, who escaped from San Diego house arrest last year after admitting he bribed Navy officials in a wide-ranging corruption scheme, is being returned to the United States from Venezuela as part of a prisoner exchange, the White House announced Wednesday.
According to the U.S. Marshals Service, Leonard cut off a GPS monitor he was required to wear and disappeared from San Diego in September 2022.
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Francis pleaded guilty in 2015 to bribing Navy officers with cash and prostitutes in exchange for classified information, persuading them to direct aircraft carriers to ports he controlled so they could be resupplied by his Singapore-based company. He also admitted overcharging the U.S. military in an amount exceeding $35 million. More than two dozen other people also pleaded guilty in the corruption case.
Francis was awaiting sentencing when he disappeared. He was subsequently arrested at Simon Bolivar International Airport and had been detained in Venezuela ever since.
The prisoner-swap announced Wednesday also includes the release of 10 Americans, six of whom were considered to have been unlawfully detained in Venezuela. A Los Angeles County public defender was among those released.
"These individuals have lost far too much precious time with their loved ones, and their families have suffered every day in their absence," President Joe Biden said in a statement. "I am grateful that their ordeal is finally over, and that these families are being made whole once more."
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