Today, House Committee on Oversight and Reform Ranking Member James Comer (R-Ky.) and several Oversight Committee Republicans are pressing U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland about the collective failures by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services leading to the escape of Leonard Francis, also known as “Fat Leonard,” from U.S. custody. In the letter to Attorney General Garland, the Republican lawmakers are requesting a briefing and all documents and communications to determine how this notorious criminal duped the justice system and escaped abroad.
“We are investigating the collective failure by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services to adequately monitor Leonard Francis, also known as “Fat Leonard,” the Singapore-based defense contractor and the mastermind behind the largest corruption scandal in U.S. Navy history. Our Committee has previously conducted oversight over Francis’s schemes to defraud taxpayers of $35 million. Francis recently escaped house arrest where he led a life of luxury and fled the country with plans to enter Russia just three weeks before his scheduled sentencing for buying classified information and favors for his shipping company from Navy officers. U.S. authorities had to rely on Venezuelan law enforcement to capture the admitted conman, and will now have to work with the hostile regime to ensure he is delivered back into U.S. custody,” wrote the lawmakers.
Francis was granted medical furlough to treat his kidney cancer in 2018 and stayed at three private homes during his confinement, most recently in a five-bedroom, seven-bath mansion costing $7,000 a month and located just 40 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. Because Francis was a flight risk, security guards were required to watch the former-defense-contractor-turned-criminal’s home round-the-clock as a condition of his furlough. The security guards, however, were private hires on Francis’s payroll making as much as $10,000 per month. One security guard, who worked the 12-hour day shift, admitted that he never saw security when he arrived or left his post, indicating that no night security was on watch.
“Extensions to Francis’s medical furlough were repeatedly granted by the court without objection from DOJ prosecutors. It is astonishing that DOJ and the U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services would allow this man the freedom to oversee his own luxurious confinement,” continued the lawmakers.
The letter to Attorney General Garland can be found here.
Original source can be found here.
