“Fat Leonard,” the flamboyant defense contractor who admitted to bribing top Navy brass with booze and hookers in a $35 million scheme and bolted while awaiting sentencing earlier this month, was turned over by Venezuelan officials to the U.S. this week as part of a prisoner swap.
The swap included Fat Leonard, whose real name is Leonard Glenn Francis, along with 10 Americans who had been held prisoner in Venezuela in exchange for the U.S. releasing a close ally of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.
Francis, a Malaysian national, was captured at the Caracas airport in Venezuela in September 2022 as he prepared to flee the South American country for Russia, Interpol said. Francis, 58, had been in U.S. custody, but earlier in the month he cut off his ankle monitor while under house arrest in San Diego and slipped out of the country, sparking an international manhunt.
Venezuela told…
