The Post

Venezuela to hand over US Navy scandal mastermind

Leonard Glenn Francis, a defence contractor who admitted to a US$35 million (NZ$56 million) bribery scheme in the largest corruption scandal in US military history, will be extradited by Venezuela to the United States as part of a major prisoner swap between the estranged countries, senior Biden Administra­tion officials said yesterday.

Venezuela is also releasing 10 Americans detained by the government of Nicolás Maduro according to three officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing developmen­ts.

President Joe Biden, in exchange, agreed to grant clemency to Alex Saab, a close Maduro ally who was awaiting trial in Miami on federal money laundering charges, the officials said. The businessma­n, whom federal prosecutor­s consider a corrupt enabler of Venezuela’s authoritar­ian socialist government, is accused of siphoning off hundreds of millions of dollars in state contracts.

Saab, 51, was arrested last year during a stopover in Cape Verde en route to Iran. His detention has been a key sticking point in negotiatio­ns between Washington and Caracas. Francis, known as “Fat Leonard,” was apprehende­d by Venezuelan authori

ties in Caracas last year after escaping US sentencing. He was expected to board a plane yesterday to the United States, where he was to be transferre­d to a federal detention facility, the officials said.

A senior Administra­tion official said Biden made the “extremely difficult decision” to grant clemency to Saab to bring Americans home and to “ensure that one of the most notorious fugitives from justice is returned and held to account”.

Francis, a Malaysian national, pleaded guilty in federal court to bribing scores of Navy officials with millions of dollars in cash and gifts including luxury travel goods, Cuban cigars, Spanish suckling pigs and prostitute­s for classified or inside informatio­n that he used to defraud the Navy. The investigat­ion exposed a staggering amount of corruption within the Navy 7th Fleet.

Francis, now 59, embarrasse­d the US government last year by fleeing the country shortly before he was scheduled to be sentenced. He escaped home federal detention in San Diego on September 4, 2022, by slicing off a GPS transmitte­r strapped around his ankle, hailing a ride to the Mexican border and then hopping a flight to Cuba.

Cuban authoritie­s refused to let him stay, so he flew onward to Venezuela, where he applied for asylum at the Russian embassy in Caracas. He was awaiting a decision from Russian authoritie­s when he was arrested on September 20 at the Caracas airport on an Interpol Red Notice.

Francis then became stuck in diplomatic limbo for more than a year. While the United States and Venezuela have a long-standing extraditio­n agreement, they do not have diplomatic relations. The US Justice Department could not request extraditio­n through normal channels.

Francis had not committed any crimes in Venezuela, but Maduro’s government kept him in detention in the hope of using him as a bargaining chip in its negotiatio­ns with the Biden Administra­tion. In June, Francis was visited in prison in Caracas by Roger Carstens, the State Department's special envoy for hostage affairs, and five United Nations officials, according to Marco Rodríguez-Acosta, an attorney representi­ng Francis in Venezuela.

Francis told Carstens and the UN officials that he opposed efforts to return him to the United States and asked that he not be considered as part of a broader prisoner exchange. He applied for asylum in Venezuela on humanitari­an grounds, but officials did not rule on his request.

The Malaysian businessma­n was arrested in a federal sting operation in San Diego in September 2013 after the Naval Criminal Investigat­ive Service lured him to the United States. He pleaded guilty in January 2015 to fraud and bribery. As part of his plea deal, he provided extensive co-operation to the Justice Department by providing incriminat­ing evidence against hundreds of Navy personnel.

Francis was released from jail in 2018 on medical furlough and received treatment for advanced kidney cancer. He remained on home detention in San Diego until his escape last year.