By Nick Wadhams (Bloomberg) The Biden administration heralded a prisoner swap with Venezuela on Wednesday as a diplomatic breakthrough between two adversaries. However the massive prize was a protection contractor nicknamed “Fats Leonard,” who orchestrated one of many Pentagon’s worst-ever corruption scandals.
Fats Leonard’s actual identify is Leonard Francis, and to anybody following the US navy within the 2010s it was immediately recognizable: Over many years, he had bilked the US Navy out of some $35 million in a scheme that noticed him ply US ship commanders with money, cigars and prostitutes to make sure he would get a soar on offering provides and providers for ships arriving in Asian ports.
Much more embarrassing for the US, Navy Francis fled the US weeks earlier than he was anticipated to be sentenced on bribery and fraud costs in 2022. He reduce his ankle bracelet and left San Diego, making his approach to Mexico and Cuba earlier than Venezuelan authorities arrested him as he tried to board a flight to Moscow.
Additionally Learn: ‘I Had The US Navy By The B*lls’ Says Fats Leonard In New Podcast Collection
Among the many surprises of the deal introduced Wednesday, Venezuela agreeing to return Francis to US custody was maybe the largest. Relations between the 2 nations have been marked by growing antagonism because the US levied crushing sanctions on President Nicolas Maduro over his sidelining of the opposition.
However the deal — which additionally noticed Venezuela launch 10 Individuals in alternate for Maduro ally and financier Alex Saab — presents a glimmer of hope that the 2 sides might obtain some type of rapprochement down the highway.
Francis was returned from Venezuela “in order that he’ll face justice for crimes he dedicated in opposition to the US authorities and the American individuals,” President Joe Biden stated in a press release.
Venezuela can also be releasing some 20 political prisoners. “We stand in help of democracy in Venezuela and the aspirations of the Venezuelan individuals,” Biden stated.
For the US navy, it’s additionally one other an opportunity to make proper a humiliation that rocked the Pentagon within the mid-2000s. Regardless of responsible pleas from some prime Navy brass, prosecutors have little to indicate for circumstances linked to the scandal. A 12 months after Francis’ escape, the convictions of 4 Navy officers crumbled, following disclosures of presidency missteps, the Wall Avenue Journal reported this week.
Francis’s Glenn Protection Marine labored with the Navy for 25 years, offering items and providers for American ships in no less than a dozen nations in Asia, based on courtroom filings. Amongst three regional contracts the corporate was awarded in 2011 was one for as a lot as $125 million over 5 years to supply tugboats, gas, trash removing and different providers for the Navy in Southeast Asia.
By Nick Wadhams © 2023 Bloomberg L.P.
