On Tuesday, a federal magistrate dismissed the felony convictions of five retired military officers who had admitted to accepting bribes from a Malaysian contractor known as “Fat Leonard” in one of the Navy’s most significant corruption cases.
The government, not the defense, requested the dismissals, and prosecutorial errors served as justification.
Donald Hornbeck, Robert Gorsuch, Jose Luis Sanchez, and U.S. Marine Corps Col. Enrico DeGuzman, all retired U.S. Navy officers, had all acknowledged to accepting bribes from defense contractor Leonard Francis, who was known as “Fat Leonard.”
The Navy’s most extensive corruption cases in recent history are centered around the enigmatic figure, who at one point weighed 350 pounds and stood at a height of 6 feet 3 inches.
On Tuesday, the three individuals entered a guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge of disclosing information.
It was the most recent setback in the government’s years-long endeavor to pursue dozens of military officials associated with Francis, who pleaded guilty to offering over $500,000 in cash bribes, as well as other gifts and wild sex parties in Southeast Asia, to Navy officials, defense contractors, and others.
Marine Asia Ltd., a Singapore-based company that supplied food, water, and petroleum to U.S. Navy vessels, was owned and operated by Francis vessels. In 2013, he was apprehended in San Diego during an undercover operation.
Prosecutors stated in legal filings outlining their request for Tuesday’s dismissals that the action does not imply that the defendants did not commit the charged offenses. Rather, they sought to ensure that justice was served fairly due to the lack of information provided to the defense and other errors.
In 2022, Judge Janis Sammartino determined that the former chief federal prosecutor had engaged in “flagrant misconduct” by withholding information from defense lawyers.
Francis’ dismissals occur weeks prior to his scheduled court appearance to determine his sentencing date.
a daring escape from his house detention in San Diego in 2022 and returned to the United States late last year. go in 2022. He fled to South America weeks prior to his scheduled sentencing last year and was subsequently apprehended in Venezuela. Venezuela subsequently extradited him to the United States as part of a prisoner exchange.