Ring of Steel

July 7, 2022·34 min·3 clips

At 21, Leonard Francis prayed for a miracle in a Malaysian prison, unaware he'd soon corrupt the U.S. Navy.

The episode opens with Leonard Francis recounting his 1985 arrest for armed robbery in Penang, Malaysia, aged 21. He describes deplorable prison conditions: overcrowded cells, a bucket toilet, and weekly canings. He witnessed fellow Westerners face the death penalty for heroin trafficking, which left a lasting psychological mark. After his mother testified on his behalf, he was fined and released, interpreting the outcome as divine intervention. Host Tom Wright introduces the podcast series and frames Leonard's subsequent career as a direct product of post-Cold War and post-9/11 American military expansion. After prison, Leonard worked out of a shophouse in Malaysia and cultivated relationships with US Navy officers at embassy receptions, providing dinners, gifts, and tailors. He won his first Navy commission to supply fresh food to a tank landing ship. When the US was forced out of Subic Bay in the Philippines, Leonard identified the gap in port services across Asia. In Bali, he invested his own money to build a pier on Indonesian government land, paying off local officials, and quickly turned the island into one of the busiest port calls in the Pacific. By the mid-1990s, Leonard had relocated to Singapore and begun throwing elaborate parties for Navy officers, complete with luxury cars, top-shelf liquor, and women he described as connected to wealthy tycoons. Former Navy officer David Capone recalls Leonard as a gregarious, American-acting agent who made himself indispensable. Contracting officer Bruno Wengrowski was more suspicious, noting Leonard's habit of overcharging and his skill at making people feel included while always angling for something. After the USS Cole bombing in 2000 and September 11 the following year, the Navy mandated floating security perimeters around ships in port. Leonard invented the ring of steel — initially oil drums on cables — and later upgraded to steel barges. Lieutenant Commander Edmond Arrufo, who later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States, wrote Force Protection plans mandating Leonard's ring of steel across the 7th Fleet, delivering Leonard a captive and lucrative market. By the height of his operation, Leonard was charging over $1 million per ship visit. He moved into a 70,000-square-foot mansion on Singapore's most expensive street, previously housing the Saudi embassy, valued at $130 million. He owned over 20 luxury cars and ran annual Christmas light displays that appeared on local television. Leonard frames his excess not as overreach but as the natural expression of success in a system where military spending ran without meaningful oversight.

As heard by us

A prison-to-port-visit rise story that becomes a blunt study of military rot.

Leonard Francis comes into view first as a terrified 21-year-old in Penang prison, then as the man who figured out how to turn U.S. Navy port visits into a monopoly.

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Why you'd press play

Hear how a prison trauma turns into a Pacific corruption story.

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