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Defense contractor pleads guilty to briding lawmaker { February 25 2006 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20060224-114955-8558r.htmhttp://washingtontimes.com/national/20060224-114955-8558r.htm
Defense contractor pleads guilty to bribing lawmaker
February 25, 2006
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A defense contractor admitted yesterday 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.
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 Republican members of Congress, identified from Federal Election Commission records as Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr. of Virginia and Rep. Katherine Harris of Florida.
The lawmakers apparently were unaware the donations were illegal, prosecutors said. Mr. Goode and Mrs. 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 separate conspiracy in which he did favors for a Defense Department official and other Pentagon employees in return for their help in awarding contracts to his company. The Pentagon employees were not named in court filings.
Wade is one of four co-conspirators in the plea agreement and sentencing memorandum for Cunningham. The co-conspirators 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 $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 Friday in U.S. District Court in San Diego.
Besides Wade, the three other co-conspirators are Brent Wilkes, founder of San Diego-based ADCS Inc.; New York businessman Thomas Kontogiannis; and John T. Michael, Mr. Kontogiannis' nephew.
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