Fat Leonard Details 2022 Escape to 3 Countries as He Seeks Trump Clemency

1 articles · Updated · The Washington Post · Jul 12

Leonard Glenn Francis said he cut off his ankle monitor in 2022, took an Uber to Mexico and boarded a chartered jet, reaching Cuba and then Venezuela before U.S. authorities caught him 15 months later.
Francis said the escape was enabled by lapses in his home detention: a private guard was absent, officials failed to detect a newly obtained Malaysian passport, and court monitoring was predictable despite prosecutors calling him an extreme flight risk.
The 61-year-old said he fled because sentencing was nearing, prosecutors refused to delay it for surgery, and he feared dying of Stage 4 kidney cancer before seeing his mother again.
Now serving a 15-year sentence, Francis is preparing a clemency appeal to President Donald Trump, arguing Justice Department misconduct tainted the Navy corruption cases and left him the only person from the scandal still in prison.
The interview also revisits the wider scandal: Francis admitted in 2015 to bribery and fraud tied to $35 million in losses, while more than 90 admirals were scrutinized and only one was convicted.