US swaps Maduro ally for wrongfully detained Americans and ‘Fat Leonard’
Mike Brest
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The Biden administration has agreed to a complex deal with Venezuela that will see several Americans wrongfully detained return to their families, according to a senior administration official.
The United States secured the release of six Americans considered by the State Department to be wrongfully detained, four other Americans, and Malaysian businessman Leonard Francis, nicknamed “Fat Leonard,” who was involved in one of the most brazen bribery scandals in the history of the U.S. military, who was arrested and returned to the U.S. from Venezuela, about 15 months after he escaped home confinement and fled.
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Another senior administration official identified Joseph Cristella, Eyvin Hernandez, Jerrel Kenemore, and Savoi Wright as the wrongfully detained Americans who will be freed.
“These individuals have lost far too much precious time with their loved ones, and their families have suffered every day in their absence. I am grateful that their ordeal is finally over and that these families are being made whole once more,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “This a positive and important step forward. And today, they are releasing twenty political prisoners, on top of five released previously. We will continue to monitor this closely and take appropriate action if needed. We stand in support of democracy in Venezuela and the aspirations of the Venezuelan people.”
Biden agreed to grant clemency to Colombian-born Alex Saab, who was pending trial on money laundering charges from 2019, in his end of the deal. Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro also agreed to release 20 Venezuelan prisoners, the senior administration official said.
“The consequences of this difficult decision will be to reunite parents with their children and grandchildren … and to ensure that one of the most notorious fugitives from justice, Fat Leonard, is returned and held to account for his crimes,” the official said.
Francis was bribing U.S. Navy officers with tens of millions of dollars and gifts in the 2000s and 2010s for information about the movements of U.S. naval vessels in the Pacific region. More than 33 people were charged in connection with the scandal, 22 of whom pleaded guilty.
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Francis’s Singapore-based company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, had provided the U.S. Navy with things it needed in port, such as food and waste removal, but frequently overcharged for his services, and he would bribe Navy officials to win lucrative military contracts. He provided the naval officials he bribed with Kobe beef, suckling pigs, Cuban cigars, cash, prostitutes, and luxury travel, among other things.
Biden has agreed to several prisoner exchanges during his administration to get Americans home and back to their families. He approved similar agreements with Russia, Iran, Afghanistan, and Venezuela once before, though there are still Americans wrongfully detained in various countries across the globe.