Dusty Foggo and Brent Wilkes  What a tangled web of bribery they wove.  But, prosecutors untangled it, with the help of inmate Randy "Duke" Cunningham, as we reported way back in the summer of 2007.

Wilkes in is in prison.  Cunningham is in prison. Today, we learned that Foggo will also be in prison: 

The highest-ranking CIA officer ever convicted of a federal felony was sentenced to more than three years in prison Thursday as part of a bribery and fraud investigation that previously resulted in the conviction of a California congressman.

Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, who as executive director held the CIA's No. 3 rank from 2004 to 2006, had asked the judge to spare him jail time, citing his covert work on behalf of the country over two decades at the CIA, including a supervisory stint in Iraq after the Sept. 11 attacks.

But U.S. District Judge James Cacheris sentenced him to the 37 months prosecutors had sought for a scheme they said revealed Foggo as a crass opportunist who wrapped himself in a cloak of patriotism.

Former Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham is now a federal inmate, convicted of conspiracy and tax evasion.  One of his alleged bribers was Brent Wilkes -- and Cunningham assisted prosecutors build the case against Wilkes. 

Cunningham's sentence was eight years and four months.  Today, Wilkes got a 12 year sentence: 

Brent Wilkes, the Poway defense contractor who federal prosecutors contend was the mastermind behind the largest congressional bribery scheme in history, was sentenced to 12 years in prison Tuesday.

The hearing before U.S. District Judge Larry A. Burns, was still going on early Tuesday afternoon.

Wilkes, 53, who had been free on bond, was convicted on Nov. 5 of conspiracy, bribery, fraud and money laundering in connection with the bribery scheme that brought down former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, a once highly respected war hero.

Guilty. The San Diego Union Tribune reports:

Brent Wilkes has been convicted of 13 felonies for bribing former congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham with expensive meals, trips, a yacht and mortgage payments for his Rancho Santa Fe mansion in exchange for lucrative government defense contracts.

The verdict was announced just before noon, today. The jury had been deliberating since Wednesday.

The verdict ended the three-week-long trial that was awash in bureaucratic acronyms like GDIC and FIRES, and the minutia of congressional budgets. It was also punctuated by eye-popping revelations of $4,000 dinners at Las Vegas resorts, a stay in a $6,600-per-night Hawaiian suite and the salacious appearance of two prostitutes who said they were hired to have sex with Wilkes and Cunningham.

The 53-year-old Poway defense contractor faces at least 20 years in prison.

This was the first criminal trial connected to the congressional bribery scandal that drove Cunningham from office and – after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion – into a federal prison cell where he is serving an eight-year sentence.

Former Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham is back in his old district these days.  But, he's incarcerated and wearing a prison jumpsuit.  The San Diego News-Tribune reports that Cunningham is aiding prosecutors on the cases of three of his former associates: 

Cunningham arrived Sunday night in the custody of federal prison authorities, wore an orange jumpsuit and was placed in a fifth-floor special segregation unit in the downtown federal jail.

Law enforcement sources said Cunningham was brought to San Diego from a prison in Tucson, where he has been serving his sentence of eight years and four months, for follow-up interviews with federal prosecutors.

The prosecutors are preparing for three trials of Cunningham's alleged co-conspirators: Poway defense contractor Brent Wilkes, former CIA official Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, and New York mortgage broker John Michael.

Cunningham is expected to remain in San Diego until prosecutors are certain they no longer need his help to prepare for the trials, according to federal law enforcement sources who requested anonymity because they are not supposed to speak publicly about ongoing investigations.

His presence should not be interpreted to mean he has cooperated enough to earn a reduction in his sentence, the sources said.

It also looks like another former colleague, who has also pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the Cunningham scandal, is helping out prosecutors:

In a separate development, Cunningham co-conspirator Thomas Kontogiannis also made an appearance in San Diego yesterday. Kontogiannis, a New York developer, pleaded guilty in a secret proceeding in February to laundering $1.1 million in bribe money for Cunningham.

He was downtown for an interview with federal probation officials and to go through a formal booking procedure at the U.S. Marshals Office. Last month, Judge Larry Burns ordered Kontogiannis to do both, court records show.

Kontogiannis also is cooperating with prosecutors in the upcoming trials. He declined to comment when approached outside the federal courthouse yesterday.

 

Former Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham is serving in time in federal prison for conspiracy and tax evasion. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, in talks with federal investigators, Cunningham "described a level of corruption on his part more extensive than previously known." What we knew was pretty bad, but it was worse:

According to an 11-page FBI summary of the sessions, obtained by Copley News Service, Cunningham was very much the initiator of his corrupt actions, demanding bribes, accepting envelopes with cash and displaying an insatiable appetite for more money, more cars, more drink, more fine food and more expensive goods.

Cunningham's answers are bad news for Brent Wilkes, president of Poway-based ADCS Inc., who is fighting bribery charges against him. They set the stage for what could be a dramatic courtroom showdown between the former North County congressman and his longtime benefactor.

Wilkes faces 30 counts in two separate indictments, including charges that he gave Cunningham $600,000 in gifts and cash in exchange for Cunningham's help in getting more than $80 million in defense contracts. Wilkes' two trials are expected to occur this fall. The government has not said if it will bring Cunningham back to San Diego to testify.

Cunningham was able to promote defense contracts for favored companies through the use of legislative “earmarks,” provisions lawmakers could slip anonymously into spending bills without debate, discussion or disclosure that benefit interests in their districts or their political supporters Wilkes has said a $100,000 payment he made to Cunningham in 2000, was not a bribe, but instead was to purchase Cunningham's river yacht, the Kelly C.

“Cunningham said that there was never a sale,” said the FBI report. “Cunningham stated that he and Wilkes created the cover story of a boat sale to explain, if anyone ever found out and asked, his receipt of $100,000 from Wilkes.” Cunningham told investigators that Wilkes fully understood that there would be “no actual change in ownership” of the yacht. The two men agreed to divide the $100,000 into two checks because both “felt that the smaller checks might be less noticeable.”

The documents show that Cunningham had first asked Wilkes for $550,000.

“Wilkes said no to the $550,000 but then countered with an offer of $100,000 if Cunningham would ensure that the support and earmarks would continue to happen. Cunningham promised Wilkes that he would 'fight like hell' for Wilkes/ADCS.”

The FBI report made the point that Cunningham was clear about the quid pro quo:

“Cunningham stated that, by 2000, he had already been receiving numerous benefits from Wilkes that included such things as vacation trips, liquor, cash/maintenance money . According to Cunningham, in return for these benefits, he had been helping Wilkes/ADCS in their efforts to secure government contracts.”

Hat tip to TPM Muckraker for the link to the article. Their post is titled "Cunningham: I'm a LIar and a Crook."

The Chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is asking for in-depth information about the relationship between White House staffers and the notorious MZM:

In another letter, sent to Joshua B. Bolten, the White House chief of staff, Waxman requests administration records involving contacts between administration officials and employees of MZM, the defense-contracting firm at the center of a scandal that resulted in an eight-year prison term for Cunningham.

Waxman notes that MZM’s first “prime” government contract was a $140,000, one-month billing for providing computers and office furniture to the Office of the Vice President. The letter requests that all records involving contacts between officials and MZM and its employees — not just those surrounding that initial contract — be delivered to the committee by April 6.

Coincidentally, Rep. Cunningham received $140,000 from MZM to purchase his boat in August of 2002 as David Corn explains:

In that note to Joshua Bolten, President Bush's chief of staff, Waxman requested information about a $140,000 contract the White House awarded in July 2002 to MZM, Inc. This was Mitchell Wade's company. He's the (now former-) military contractor who paid more than $1 million in bribes to Republican Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who's in jail for having accepted these and other bribes in return for steering federal contracts to Wade and Brent Wilkes, another defense contractor. (Wade pleaded guilty; Wilkes has not.) What's intriguing about the contract Wade received from the White House is that its amount equals the price Wade paid in August 2002 to buy the Duke-Stir, the yacht Cunningham lived (and partied) on in Washington. According to the sentencing recommendation memo in Cunningham's case, Cunningham himself negotiated the $140,000 purchase price of the boat in the summer of 2002. This raises the intriguing possibility that Wade that summer needed money to buy Cunningham the yacht and-presto-a White House contract materialized.

And there's more: this contract was Wade's first prime contract with the federal government. The firm had been incorporated in 1993 but had pulled in no revenue through 2001. So Cunningham scandal watchers have wondered, did a White House contract help launch Wade on his felonious ways, and was this contract legitimate?

Talking Points Memo has the video of White House Press Secretary addressing anew the firing of Carol Lam, the U.S. Attorney who was investigating the scandal surrounding Randy "Duke" Cunningham and his associates, former CIA official "Dusty" Foggo and Brent Wilkes:

According to Snow, there's nothing odd about the fact that the Attorney General's Chief of Staff, Kyle Sampson, discussed the need to get rid of Carol Lam just a day after she informed the Justice Department of her decision to execute search warrants against a key CIA official appointed by the Bush White House. Indeed, Snow says that the Justice Department emails expressed concern about Lam's lax immigration enforcement policies as far back as January 2005.

And yet, that's not true.

CREW has followed the legal proceedings surrounding the Randy "Duke" Cunningham case since the beginning.  Apparently, the White House and the Justice Department were also closely following the proceedings.  Kyle Samson, Chief of Staff to Alberto Gonzales,  advised White House officials that the U.S. Attorney, Carol Lam,  should be "removed as quickly as possible":

The U.S. attorney in San Diego notified the Justice Department of search warrants in a Republican bribery scandal last May 10, one day before the attorney general's chief of staff warned the White House of a "real problem" with her, a Democratic senator said yesterday.

The prosecutor, Carol S. Lam, was dismissed seven months later as part of an effort by the Justice Department and the White House to fire eight U.S. attorneys.

A Justice spokesman said there was no connection between Lam's firing and her public corruption investigations, and pointed to criticisms of Lam for her record on prosecuting immigration cases.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said in a television appearance yesterday that Lam "sent a notice to the Justice Department saying that there would be two search warrants" in a criminal investigation of defense contractor Brent R. Wilkes and Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, who had just quit as the CIA's top administrator amid questions about his ties to disgraced former GOP congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

The next day, May 11, D. Kyle Sampson, then chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, sent an e-mail message to William Kelley in the White House counsel's office saying that Lam should be removed as quickly as possible, according to documents turned over to Congress last week.

"Please call me at your convenience to discuss the following," Sampson wrote, referring to "[t]he real problem we have right now with Carol Lam that leads me to conclude that we should have someone ready to be nominated on 11/18, the day her 4-year term expires."

 

Prosecutors in the case against Brent Wilkes and former CIA official Kyle ""Dusty" Foggo are trying to make sure that the defendants don't let the threat of disclosing classified info. interfere with their case.   Foggo, the third ranking CIA official, was named to CREW's list of the 25 most corrupt officials of the Bush Administration:   

Wilkes and Foggo, until recently the third highest-ranking CIA official, were indicted by a federal grand jury last month on fraud, conspiracy and money laundering charges stemming from the bribery investigation of jailed former Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham.

An indictment said Foggo corruptly used his position to steer classified contracts to his friend, Wilkes, who reciprocated with luxury vacations and pricey meals and gifts. The indictment also alleged that in the process, Foggo revealed classified secrets to Wilkes.

In yesterday's filing with the court, prosecutors asked for a hearing under the rarely used Classified Information Procedures Act, known as CIPA, to establish rules for the handling of evidence that is designated top secret. They also asked that all defense counsel be required to obtain security clearances.

Prosecutors noted that they were concerned about “the specter of gray mail,” a defendant's practice of trying to derail his prosecution by threatening to disclose classified information in court.

Eight ethics training sessions apparently didn't have quite the desired impact on former CIA official Kyle "Dusty" Foggo.  The Politico has the details on Foggo's prominent ethics role at the agency: 

The high-ranking CIA official accused of steering contracts to a childhood friend once oversaw ethics at the agency, according to federal charging papers.

The case against Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, whose indictment is linked to the investigation that landed former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., in prison, has embarrassed the CIA. And it comes when Democrats, now holding a majority in Congress, are working to make good on campaign promises to eradicate the specter of corruption that they charged hung over the Republican-controlled Congress and the Bush administration.

Foggo, who retired last year as the third-ranking CIA official, served two years as a "deputy ethics official" and sat through ethics training eight times, according to the federal grand jury indictment handed down last week in San Diego. But Foggo covered up gifts and a job offer he received from his alleged co-conspirator, the indictment asserts. And it quotes an e-mail in which he seems to suggest ethics reporting requirements are burdensome.