"Fat Leonard" sentenced to 15 years for massive Navy bribery, fraud scheme
CBSN
Leonard Glenn Francis, a former defense contractor convicted for masterminding an unprecedented bribery and fraud scheme targeting the U.S. Navy, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to 15 years in prison. He was ordered to pay $20 million in restitution and a $150,000 fine, the Department of Justice announced.
Francis, known as "Fat Leonard," pled guilty in 2015 to the bribery and fraud charges, but fled the U.S. in 2022 leaving his GPS ankle monitoring bracelet in a water cooler just days before he was to be sentenced. The U.S. Marshals Service told CBS News Francis was detained on an Interpol red notice at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Venezuela while boarding a flight to Cuba.
He was returned to the U.S. last year as part of a large prisoner swap deal with Venezuela. Ten American detainees were released in the 2023 deal in exchange for the Biden administration freeing Alex Saab, a Colombian-born businessman and close ally of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro who was facing money laundering charges.
The U.S. president hasn't been given a raise in more than 20 years.
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Until polls close on Election Day, millions of people across the United States are casting ballots for their preferred candidates to succeed President Biden in the White House. But determining the winner is not as simple as totaling up how many people voted for Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump, because of the Electoral College.
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Boeing's 33,000 unionized machinists on Wednesday voted to approve the plane manufacturer's latest contract offer, ending a seven-week strike that had halted production of most of the company's passenger planes.
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John Fervier, chairman of Georgia's State Election Board, is a mild-mannered corporate executive with a dry wit and an aversion to the spotlight. Yet in recent weeks he found himself at the center of a political storm as three of his MAGA-oriented board members pushed through rules that many believed would have caused chaos and confusion in Georgia during the presidential election.
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As Americans head to the polls on Election Day 2024 to choose between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, voters should know the required ID, if any, they need to present in order to submit their ballots depending on the state they are registered in.
More than 78 million voters cast their ballots early in the 2024 election, but millions more are expected to turn out to vote on Election Day. In some states, voter registration deadlines have already passed, but nearly half the states plus the District of Columbia allow same-day registration on Election Day for those who still want to register and vote.