Finite podcast series · True Crime

Fat Leonard

Fat Leonard

“Fat Leonard” is the most shocking unknown tale of our era: Leonard Francis, a 350-pound defense contractor, bribed U.S. Navy officers with cash, prostitutes and luxury items in return for fraudulent multi-million-dollar deals. Eventually the NCIS set up an off-the-books operation to entrap Leonard. As details of his fraud became clear, the Navy moved to protect its senior ranks. In “Fat Leonard,” the debut podcast from Project Brazen (the content studio created by “Billion Dollar Whale” co-authors and former Wall Street Journal reporters Bradley Hope and Tom Wright), Leonard himself, detained since 2013, is talking for the first time -- and he’s angry. Host Tom Wright has spent hours with Leonard, but also recording scores of other voices, including the brave women who exposed the fraud. The alarming and sordid details in “Fat Leonard” lay bare the misogyny and sexual abuse that persist in the U.S. military and could destabilize the biggest trials yet of Navy officers in this case, set to begin in 2022. “Fat Leonard” will change the way you look at the Navy forever.

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