He Bribed the Navy for Years, Then Fled the Country.
Now He Wants a Presidential Pardon.

Leonard Glenn Francis built a $200,000,000-plus military-contracting empire refueling and provisioning U.S. Navy ships across the Pacific for the better part of two decades — then spent nearly ten of those years running one of the largest bribery schemes in the history of the American military. He fed senior Navy officers cash, prostitutes, and Kobe beef dinners in exchange for classified ship schedules and inflated invoices, defrauding the Navy of more than $35,000,000 before federal agents lured him into a San Diego hotel room in 2013.

He pleaded guilty in 2015. He was sentenced in 2024. In between, he cut off his GPS ankle monitor, fled the country, and was recaptured in Venezuela allegedly trying to board a flight to Russia — a fugitive run that ended only after the United States traded a Maduro-linked money launderer to get him back.

Now, according to a Washington Post exclusive published July 12, 2026, Francis has confirmed he is seeking a pardon from President Donald Trump (R). He is serving a 15-year sentence at FCI Terminal Island in San Pedro, California. The White House says it is “not tracking” his request.

• 15 years — the federal prison sentence U.S. District Judge Janis L. Sammartino imposed on Francis in November 2024 for masterminding the Navy bribery scandal · Source: DOJ / USAO-SDCA
• $55,150,000 — combined restitution, fine, and forfeiture ordered at sentencing — $20 million restitution, $150,000 fine, $35 million forfeiture · Source: DOJ / USAO-SDCA
• $35,000,000+ — the amount prosecutors say Francis overbilled the Navy through fraudulent invoices, on top of at least $500,000 in direct cash bribes · Source: DOJ 2015 plea agreement

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For nearly two decades, Francis’s Singapore-based company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia (GDMA), held “husbanding” contracts to resupply, refuel, and berth U.S. 7th Fleet ships across Asia-Pacific ports — fuel, food, tugboats, security, sewage removal. GDMA won more than $200,000,000in Navy contracts since 2011 alone. Prosecutors say Francis ran a parallel bribery operation for roughly seven years, from 2006 to 2013, using company profits to cultivate senior Navy officers with cash, luxury hotel stays, Cuban cigars, Kobe beef dinners, and prostitutes — in exchange for classified ship-scheduling data, confidential competitor bids, and sign-off on inflated invoices.

At least $500,000 in outright cash bribes changed hands, prosecutors say, while GDMA overbilled the Navy by more than $35,000,000through phony fees for sewage disposal, tugboat services, and force protection that in some cases never occurred. More than 30 people, including active-duty and retired admirals, were eventually implicated in what Navy investigators called one of the largest corruption scandals in the service’s history. Federal agents arrested Francis in a September 2013 sting, luring him to a San Diego hotel room under the pretense of a business meeting.

Francis pleaded guilty in January 2015 to conspiracy to bribe public officials, bribery of a public official, and conspiracy to defraud the United States. He spent years cooperating with prosecutors as they built cases against dozens of Navy officers — and, citing advanced kidney cancer, was allowed to await sentencing under house arrest rather than in custody.

That arrangement collapsed on September 4, 2022. Days before a scheduled sentencing hearing, Francis cut the GPS ankle monitor tracking him at his San Diego home and disappeared. Investigators traced his route through Mexico to Cuba, then to Venezuela, where Venezuelan authorities intercepted him at Caracas’s main airport between September 20 and 22, 2022 — reportedly as he attempted to board a flight bound for Russia, a country with no extradition treaty with the United States. His attorneys later told reporters that prosecutorial disputes and his mother’s declining health, not the pending sentence alone, drove the decision to run.

Venezuela held Francis for more than a year. He came back to the United States in December 2023 as part of a prisoner exchange — traded, alongside several jailed Americans, for Alex Saab, a Colombian businessman and close ally of Nicolás Maduro convicted of laundering money on the regime’s behalf. The Justice Department announced his return in a statement titled, without embellishment, “Fugitive Leonard Francis Back in San Diego.”

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Before Francis was ever sentenced, his own prosecution came apart in a different way. In May 2024, Judge Sammartino vacated the convictions of several retired Navy officers after finding that Mark Pletcher, the lead Assistant U.S. Attorney on the case, had committed what the court called flagrant misconduct — including withholding evidence from defense attorneys. Pletcher left the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2026. The ruling did not touch Francis’s own guilty plea, but it gutted years of related casework the government had built off his cooperation — a costly, unforced error inside the same office that spent a decade building the case.

Francis himself was finally sentenced on November 5, 2024: 180 months — 15 years — in federal prison, plus $20,000,000 in restitution, a $150,000 fine, and $35,000,000 in forfeiture. Two co-conspirators paid separately: Alex Wisidagama was ordered to pay $34,800,000, and Paul Simpkins $450,000.

“Leonard Francis lined his pockets with taxpayer dollars while undermining the integrity of U.S. Naval forces. The impact of his deceit and manipulation will be long felt, but justice has been served today.”

Tara McGrath, then-U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California · sentencing, November 5, 2024

Francis appealed, arguing his sentence exceeded what prosecutors had recommended in his own plea agreement and citing his cancer diagnosis. In January 2026, a Ninth Circuit panel rejected the bid outright, leaving the sentence intact. He remains at FCI Terminal Island, with a Bureau of Prisons release date not expected until late 2030 or 2031.

That is where the case stood until July 12, 2026, when The Washington Post published an exclusive interview in which Francis confirmed, for the first time publicly, that he is seeking a pardon from President Trump. Francis has not said through what channel he is petitioning, and no formal application has surfaced in public Justice Department pardon records — this is a reported bid, not a granted or formally docketed one.

Asked about the reported effort, a White House official told the Post: “The White House is not tracking this individual’s supposed request.” That is a denial that the request is under active consideration — not a denial that Francis is asking.

Nothing about Francis’s conviction is in dispute. He pleaded guilty. A federal judge sentenced him. A federal appeals court upheld that sentence months ago. What remains open is whether a man who bribed Navy officers for years, defrauded taxpayers of tens of millions of dollars, and then fled the country rather than face sentencing will spend the next several years in a California prison — or walk out early on a president’s signature. As of this writing, that question has no answer.

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Last updated July 13, 2026