Fat Leonard is on the lam.

Despite his well-deserved nickname, Leonard Glenn Francis is not going to be easy to find. He slipped out of house arrest at San Diego after nine years in custody while awaiting sentencing September 22 for conning Navy brass in Southeast Asia out of about $36 million.

How Fat Leonard got all that loot amounts to what may be the greatest scandal in the history of the U.S. Armed Forces. All that it took, it seems, was for Mr. Francis, as he was never known, to oil Navy brass with parties, liquor, girls, fancy hotel rooms, and various gifts.

All that’s known now is that Fat Leonard has vanished into thin air, nowhere to be found. There hasn’t been a trace of him since startled police, answering a telephone tip, showed up and, surprise, found no one home.

Why wasn’t 24-hour security around to check on Mr. Francis, as a district court judge, Janis Sammartino, had ordered four years ago before reluctantly bowing to his attorney’s request to let him out of jail for medical reasons? That’s just one of the mysteries surrounding a man who has to be one of the world’s greatest masters at charming, skimming, and scamming otherwise respectable citizens

For Fat Leonard, who had pleaded guilty to accepting $500,000 in bribes, convincing his security to take the day off and leave him alone had to have been a simple con job. After all, per court order, he was responsible for paying them.

Until he was tricked into meeting investigators in a sting at San Diego in 2013, Fat Leonard had charmed dozens of officers into letting him vastly overcharge the Navy for resupplying some of America’s most prestigious vessels while in Singapore, Manila, and other ports of call. For a fling or a liquor-drenched party, these sailors, including admirals, would clue Mr. Francis in on when their ships would be arriving, and he’d be ready to welcome them with pleasures only found in port.

Mr. Francis, a Malaysian citizen, made sure his company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia of Singapore, was pumped and primed to provide the enticements most sailors love. After his arrest, he squealed like a pig on his pals, resulting in dozens of career-ending trials, arrests, and sentences.

The highest-ranking fish ensnared in the net so far is Rear Admiral Robert Gilbeau, assistant to the chief of naval supply, who has the distinction of having been the only admiral in American Navy history to be convicted of a felony while on active duty. He tried to cover his tracks by destroying records but eventually admitted to a 20-year relationship with Fat Leonard.

Judge Sammartino sentenced Gilbeau to a year and a half in jail, plus probation and a hefty fine, but Gilbeau, now a free man, won’t have too much trouble coming up with the dough. Reduced in rank to captain, he’s still getting a pension of about $10,000 a month.

Gilbeau shared one thing in common with Captain Michael George Brooks, former naval attaché at the American embassy in Manila: They both were plied with prostitutes — Brooks on numerous occasions.

Brooks pleaded guilty finally to an assortment of crimes, one of which carries overtones beyond that of simple bribery. He also saw to it that Fat Leonard’s company got diplomatic clearance to send supplies into the Philippines, avoiding the hassle and costs of Philippine customs, for all of which he served three and a half years.

So far none of these upstanding Navy men are accused of selling secrets to foreign powers. There’s no suggestion that any of them got money from Chinese contacts who might want to know when to expect their vessels in the South China Sea, which China claims as its own.

Yet who’s to know what information Fat Leonard was passing along, and to whom? It’s going to take a while to interrogate him again. He’s assumed to have planned his escape carefully and undoubtedly has charmed others into helping him — though probably not any of the officers on whom he lavished such favors. Right now, one theory is he’s in Mexico just a few miles south of San Diego — that is, if he’s not back home in Malaysia.

After hiring U-Haul trucks to clear out his house, Fat Leonard did leave behind one souvenir of his encounters with the law: the court-ordered ankle bracelet that he’d apparently had no trouble sawing off.