SAN DIEGO - Court documents reveal embattled defense contractor Leonard Glenn Francis, a.k.a. 'Fat Leonard,' was considered a flight risk.
Authorities discovered Fat Leonard escaped house arrest Sunday by cutting off his ankle monitor and apparently moving out of his San Diego area home. Tom Wright, producer of the Fat Leonard podcast series tells NBC 7 he's surprise by Leonard's escape and said its a black eye for the prosecutors.
"He's been a cooperating witness for seven years," said Wright. "For him to escape like this just days before his sentencing was really unexpected."
But unsealed court documents from a medical furlough hearing in 2018 reveal that a federal judge noted her concern about Leonard as a flight risk despite his health issues.
Leonard was arrested in San Diego in 2013 and pleaded guilty in 2015 to offering some $500,000 in bribes - including lavish gifts, hotel stays and prostitutes - to Navy officers between 2004 and 2013. The officers gave him classified information and directed military vessels to ports that were lucrative for Leonard's ship servicing company, where prosecutors say he overcharged the military by about $35 Million dollars.
Photo: KGTV
The scandal took down several Navy officers and a senior NCIS investigator.
The U.S. Marshall's service believes Leonard is on the run in Mexico.
Listen to the Fat Leonard podcast series below or on the iHeartRadio app: