WORLD / AMERICAS
Contractor at heart of US Navy’s biggest scandal flees
Published: Sep 06, 2022 07:54 PM
Demonstrators march during a protest against the Supreme Court's overturning of the Roe v. Wade abortion-rights ruling in New York, the United States, July 4, 2022. The US Supreme Court on June 24 overturned Roe v. Wade, a landmark decision that established a constitutional right to abortion in the nation nearly half a century ago. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua)

(Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua)


A military contractor who pleaded guilty in the US Navy's worst ever corruption scandal has escaped house arrest in San Diego, the US Marshals Service said Monday.

"Leonard Francis cut off his GPS monitoring ankle bracelet Sunday morning," Supervisory Deputy US Marshal Omar Castillo told AFP in a statement.

Francis, who ran a military contracting company, pleaded guilty in 2015 to offering some $500,000 in bribes to Navy officers to steer official work to his shipyards, carrying out work on US vessels that prosecutors say he overcharged the Navy for, to the tune of $35 million.

Police were sent to his San Diego residence on Sunday after the agency monitoring his ankle bracelet reported a problem with the device, Castillo said. 

"They then notified US Marshals who went to the house and verified that he was no longer there. As of now multiple leads are being investigated."

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the cut-off GPS bracelet was found in the house, while neighbors said they had seen U-Haul moving trucks coming and going at the property in the days leading up to his escape. 

He was due to be sentenced on September 22.

AFP