Fat Leonard pleads poverty, blaming lawyers, lobbyists — and Maduro. (Craig Whitlock, WaPo, July 13, 2026)

From The Washington Post:

Fat Leonard pleads poverty, blaming lawyers, lobbyists — and Maduro

The defense contractor who bilked the U.S. Navy says he lacks funds to pay $30 million in restitution.

July 13, 2026 at 8:15 a.m. EDTToday at 8:15 a.m. EDT

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Then-Vice Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III poses with Asian maritime tycoon Leonard Glenn Francis, also known as Fat Leonard, in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 2007. (Glenn Defense Marine Asia)

By Craig Whitlock

Fat Leonard says he’s running out of money — and can’t afford to pay back $30 million he still owes the U.S. government.

Leonard Glenn Francis, the 350-pound con man who masterminded the biggest corruption scandal in U.S. military history, is seeking a presidential pardon, The Washington Post reported Sunday in an exclusive interview that also revealed how he bamboozled U.S. authorities. He’s serving a 15-year sentence for bribery and fraud.

Francis signed a plea deal promising to pay $35 million in restitution for bilking the Navy as a defense contractor. He paid $5 million up front, but now says he can’t scrape together the rest because he has massive legal bills — and needs to hire lobbyists to plead for clemency from President Donald Trump.

Nothing’s cheap. Everybody wants money,” Francis said in a follow-up phone interview with The Post from federal prison in California. 

Until 2022, Francis lived like a tycoon while under house arrest in San Diego, renting a $7,000-per month mansion. Then he fled the country in a private jet, only to be caught in Venezuela.

He said the Venezuelan government — led by President Nicolás Maduro — also drained his finances by extorting bribes until it handed him over to the United States 15 months after his escape.

“I had to pay Maduro for his hospitality,” Francis lamented. He declined to say how much, but added: “It was a lot.”