Venezuela extradited Fat Leonardo, who defrauded millions of dollars, to the United States

The perpetrator of one of the largest fraud scandals in US military history, Fat Leonard, a Malaysian businessman known as Cover Leonard, defrauded the US Navy of millions of dollars for more than a decade. The White House said in a statement that Leonard Glenn Francis has now been handed over to the American authorities as part of a prisoner exchange with Venezuela, in exchange for the release of ten American citizens detained in Venezuela. BBC.

Leonard Glenn Francis committed a $35 million (12 billion Hungarian forint) fraud against the US Navy, thus organizing one of the largest corruption scandals in the country’s military history, in which more than two dozen US Navy officials were involved. Prosecutors say he used his Singapore-based Naval Ship Service business to defraud the U.S. Navy while bribing American officers with money and gifts.

The businessman was first arrested in 2013, but escaped US custody in 2022 and was arrested by Venezuelan authorities a few weeks later when he tried to board a flight from Venezuela to Russia. He has been under house arrest in Venezuela until now.

As part of the prisoner exchange, the United States released Alex Saab, an advisor to the Venezuelan president.