The crooked Malaysian businessman known as Fat Leonard, who brought down Navy top brass in one of the biggest corruption scandals in the history of the military, has broken his silence in a stunning new podcast where he boasts about plying admirals with booze and prostitutes, and the sweet informant deal he struck with the US government.
Francis Glenn Leonard, 57, was arrested after the scandal erupted in 2013.
Famous for his towering portliness, he is known widely as Fat Leonard and the scandal - which toppled dozens of Navy officers and implicated commanders and admirals- became known by that nickname.
Leonard was arrested in 2013 and pleaded guilty to fraud and bribery after spending years plying the Navy with gifts, cash, trips and prostitutes' in exchange for favorable contracts and secret information.
He flipped after his arrest and agreed to testify against the Navy as part of a sweeping prosecution by the Department of Justice's that remains ongoing; seven Navy officers are still awaiting trial and Leonard is the star witness.
Despite being told by the government not to talk, Leonard - who has kidney cancer - is revealing how he infilitrated the upper echelons of the Navy in Fat Leonard, a new nine-part podcast by author and journalist Tom Wright, which DailyMail.com has previewed.
'Fat Leonard', aka Leonard Glenn Francis, the Malaysian businessman who infiltrated the US Navy in Manila and blackmailed officers into giving him favors and shipping routes, is speaking out in a new podcast
'Everybody was in my pocket. I had them rolling around in my palm. I had the Navy by their balls. I turned my torpedo, my guns against them, because they betrayed me,' Leonard says in one episode.
He also revealed that the government had arranged for visas for his whole family, saying: 'Everybody came legally. Uncle Sam knows, everybody knows what I’m doing. My children are my children.
They wanted to have the good life that they could not have. They wanted the fine dining, the fine gifts, hotel rooms, sedans, luxury cars, watches, handbags, fancy meals, alcohol, cigars
'My wellbeing is more important than anyone else… I am their star witness,' Leonard said.
Wright shared unreleased episodes with DailyMail.com where Leonard, 'entirely unrepentant', calls the mother of his children a 'prostitute' and reveals that the US government gave his kids visas in order for them to come to the country and be with him.
In one episode, he talks proudly about going after Michael Misiewicz, a commander who he supplied with prostitutes in Tokyo in exchange for secret shipping routes to Australia.
‘Misciewicz had value, you know, he was like the number two guy in the scheduling department.
'If you look at him, he’s actually a really nice guy, very gentle personality, friendly, great dad to his kids, womanizer...' Leonard said, adding that his number two - New Yorker Edmond Aruffo - 'embedded' him.
‘They wanted to have the good life that they could not have. They wanted the fine dining, the fine gifts, hotel rooms, sedans, luxury cars, watches, handbags, fancy meals, alcohol, cigars,' he said.
Leonard is shown with Rear Admiral Bolivar, who was investigated as part of the scandal.
Fat Leonard, aka Leonard Glenn Francis, on his warship - the USS Braveheart - which he bought. He is obsessed with American culture and speaks with an American accent, despite never having lived in the US
Leonard had infiltrated Misiewicz's family and friends while he was working on the USS Blue Ridge out of Manila in 2011.
He gave him and his family tickets to the Lion King in Tokyo, bought his wife Marcy a Gucci handbag when she became suspicious of him, and arranged for Michael to sleep with prostitutes in Tokyo on a regular basis.
The scheme came crashing down in 2013 after Marcy Misiewicz, Michael's wife, suspected he was cheating on her and confronted him. He struck her and she reported it to the NCIS, which started filtering through Michael's emails.
Among them were exchanges with Leonard, where Michael had supplied secret shipping routes to Australia.
Leonard, who had a spy in the NCIS, found out and tried to placate her but he was eventually arrested, along with Misiewicz, who was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Marcy is interviewed in one episode and talks about balking at Leonard's 'smarmy' right-hand-man, Ed Aruffo.
'I played professional and sexual... the Navy expected me to put on these orgies and these parties,' Leonard says of his role in the Navy. He organized parties for officers throughout Asia. Above, an unidentified group at one party
More Navy senior officials at a party Leonard says he threw for them in his unofficial role
Aruffo, a New Yorker, was Leonard's man on the inside. He helped him choose the Navy commanders and officers to corrupt.
She told DailyMail.com on Wednesday that she never spoke to Leonard - the man who tore apart her family by corrupting her husband's once stellar career.
'Listening to Leonard is like he and Ed have the same personality. It's the same nauseating feeling I get when I hear him as I did with Ed.'
She said she 'never in a million years' would have thought her husband would have sex with prostitutes, and that she can 'only imagine' why he did.
Marcy was
