From Fugitive to Shackled Prisoner, ‘Fat Leonard’ Lands Back in US Court and Could Face More Charges

MIAMI—A defense contractor at the center of one of the biggest bribery scandals in U.S. military history is expected to face additional charges following his return to the United States from Venezuela as part of a broader prisoner swap between the two countries, a federal prosecutor said Thursday. Leonard Glenn Francis, who is nicknamed “Fat Leonard,” faced a federal judge for the first time since snipping off his ankle monitor last year and disappearing weeks before a sentencing hearing on charges that he offered more than $500,000 in cash bribes to Navy officials, defense contractors, and others. He was later arrested in Venezuela and had been in custody there since, but was returned to the United States in a large swap Wednesday that also saw the release of 10 American detainees by Venezuela in exchange for the Biden administration freeing Alex Saab, a Colombian-born businessman and close ally of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro who’d been charged in the United States in a money laundering case....