Wade Pleads Guilty to Bribing Cunningham
rc...@mailinator.com
By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 41 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - A defense contractor admitted Friday he paid a California
congressman more than $1 million in bribes in exchange for millions
more in government contracts in a scandal that prosecutors say reached
into the Defense Department.
ADVERTISEMENT
Mitchell Wade pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to conspiring with
former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham to bribe the Republican lawmaker
with cash, cars and antiques over four years, and to help him evade
millions of dollars in tax liability.
The payments helped bring MZM Inc. of Washington, which Wade started in
1993, more than $150 million in government contracts since 2002.
"I take full responsibility for my actions," Wade told Judge Ricardo
Urbina after entering his plea to four corruption charges that carry a
maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
Cunningham quit Congress last year after he pleaded guilty to taking
bribes from Wade and others.
Wade, MZM's former president, also admitted making nearly $80,000 in
illegal campaign contributions in the names of MZM employees and their
spouses to two other members of Congress, identifiable from
Federal Election Commission records as Rep. Virgil Goode (news, bio,
voting record), R-Va., and Rep. Katherine Harris (news, bio, voting
record), R-Fla.
"Wade targeted these two members of Congress because he believed that
they had the ability to request appropriations funding that would
benefit MZM," U.S. Attorney Kenneth Wainstein of Washington said at a
news conference following Wade's plea hearing.
The lawmakers apparently were unaware the donations were illegal,
prosecutors said. Goode and Harris have said they would donate campaign
funds to charity in the amount of contributions they received from MZM.
Wade also admitted his role in a second, separate conspiracy in which
he did favors for a Defense Department official, including hiring his
son at MZM, and other employees in return for their help in awarding
contracts to his company.
The
Pentagon employees were not named in court filings, but The Washington
Post has identified the official as William S. Rich Jr., who until 2003
was executive director of the Army's National Ground Intelligence
Center in Charlottesville, Va. Rich was later hired by MZM.
Wade has been cooperating with federal prosecutors in Washington and
San Diego since last summer and is required to continue to do so as
part of his plea agreement with the government, federal prosecutor
Howard Sklamberg told the judge.
Wade is one of four coconspirators in the plea agreement and sentencing
memorandum for Cunningham. The coconspirators are not named in court
papers, but they have been identified elsewhere.
Among Wade's gifts to Cunningham was the purchase of the congressman's
California home for a price inflated by $700,000. Cunningham, 64, used
the money to move into a $2.55 million, seven-bath mansion in the
exclusive San Diego County community of Rancho Santa Fe.
A bribe of a $140,000 in the form of a 42-foot yacht, the Duke-Stir,
brought Wade an offer of $16 million in contracts, according to
Cunningham's sentencing memorandum, which calls for a 10-year prison
term.
Wade bought Cunningham $190,000 in antiques over two years from one
store alone, records show. Cunningham used the antiques "to feather his
nest in San Diego," prosecutors said.
The former "Top Gun" flight instructor and Vietnam War flying ace is
scheduled to be sentenced March 3 in U.S. District Court in San Diego.
Besides Wade, the three other coconspirators are: Brent Wilkes, founder
of San Diego-based ADCS Inc.; New York businessman Thomas Kontogiannis;
and John T. Michael, Kontogiannis' nephew.