Every time you turn around-the rather rotund Malaysian claims another victim:
The alleged Pacific fleet swindler known as "Fat Leonard" made his first court appearance in San Diego on Thursday to hear formal charges against him that include conspiring with Navy officers on port contracts worth more than $200 million and bribing them with cash, prostitutes and Lady Gaga tickets.
A U.S. magistrate judge issued a conditional ruling Thursday that would allow Leonard Glenn "Fat Leonard" Francis to be released on $1 million bail.
Judge Jan Adler attached to his ruling a list of stringent restrictions, including that Francis not only be monitored by GPS but must rent a San Diego apartment with surveillance cameras and alarms on the windows, and hire an independent, 24-hour security guard who would alert authorities if he tried to flee.
Adler also stayed his decision pending a review from a U.S. district judge. It was unclear when that would happen.
Francis, 49, head of the Glenn Defense Marine Asia ship servicing firm operating out of Singapore, was arrested in September in San Diego in a sting operation by San Diego authorities and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
While Francis was in court, another Navy officer was caught up in the widening contracting scandal involving connections to GDMA. The Navy announced Thursday that Capt. David Haas, 45, deputy commander of Coastal Riverine Group 1 in Imperial Beach, Calif., had been suspended while his alleged connections to Francis were being investigated.
"The decision to re-assign Haas was made based upon allegations in connection with an ongoing NCIS (NCIS) investigation into Glenn Defense Marine," the Navy said in a statement. Coastal Riverine Group 1 is in charge of port and harbor security in San Diego.
In addition to Haas, two admirals, a captain, two commanders and an NCIS agent are also under investigation in the scandal that allegedly involved Francis paying for information on the movements of Navy ships that could be serviced by his firm, which has won contracts from the Navy worth more than $200 million since 2009.
"According to the allegations in this case, a number of officials were willing to sacrifice their integrity and millions of taxpayer dollars for personal gratification," Laura Duffy, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California, said in court papers.
This thing just keeps getting bigger and bigger. My apologies for not posting sooner-but my trip last week was a really busy one. No time or energy at the end of each day. Back home just long enough to do laundry then out the door again. 😉