KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 6): Malaysian national Leonard Glenn Francis, a military contractor better known as Fat Leonard, who had been under house arrest in San Diego after pleading guilty to masterminding the worst public corruption scandal in US Navy history, is on the run.

In a report on Monday (Sept 5), the San Diego Union-Tribune (SDUT) quoted Supervisory Deputy US Marshal Omar Castillo as saying that Francis, cut off his GPS monitoring ankle bracelet sometime Sunday morning.

San Diego police officers who then went to his home found it empty, Castillo said.

The US Marshals Office was notified about 2pm on Sunday and activated the San Diego Regional Fugitive Task Force to begin the high-profile manhunt. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which spearheaded the massive case against Francis more than a decade ago, is also assisting.

The SDUT said neighbors told authorities that they had seen U-haul moving trucks going in and out of Francis’ home in the days leading up to his escape.

“He was planning this out, that’s for sure,” Castillo said.

He said law enforcement agencies will be notified to be on the lookout, and alerts will be placed at international borders and airports.

Investigators will also see if his U-haul trucks show up on license plate readers throughout the state or at the US-Mexico border crossings. But he may have already crossed south, Castillo acknowledged.

Francis was arrested in San Diego in 2013 and pleaded guilty in 2015, admitting to bribing numerous high-ranking naval officers and swindling the Navy out of at least US$35 million in overcharges.

He was alleged to have bribed a large number of uniformed officers of the US Seventh Fleet with at least a half million dollars in cash, plus travel expenses, luxury items, and prostitutes, in return for classified material about the movements of US ships and submarines, confidential contracting information, and information about active law enforcement investigations into Glenn Defense Marine Asia.

Francis then "exploited the intelligence for illicit profit, brazenly ordering his moles to redirect aircraft carriers to ports he controlled in Southeast Asia so he could more easily bilk the Navy for fuel, tugboats, barges, food, water and sewage removal".