‘Fat Leonard’ Jail Sentence for Navy Bribes Upheld on Appeal (1)

The defense contractor turned international fugitive known as “Fat Leonard” failed to convince a federal appeals court to reverse his prison sentence for perpetrating the Navy’s largest corruption scandal.

The district court considered Leonard Glenn Francis’ arguments and had a reasoned basis for rejecting them, the sentence isn’t substantively unreasonable, and the lower court didn’t plainly violate his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said in an unpublished memorandum Friday. The appeals court affirmed the district court’s 15-year sentence—more than seven of which he has remaining to serve.

“Taken together, the ...