Defense contractor pleads guilty to bribery
Mitchell Wade lavished $1M in gifts on California congressman

The Associated Press

Feb. 24, 2006

WASHINGTON - A defense contractor admitted Friday that he paid a
California congressman more than $1 million in bribes in exchange
for millions more in government contracts.

Mitchell Wade pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to conspiring with
former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham to bribe the lawmaker with
cash, cars and antiques, and to help him evade millions of dollars in
tax liability.

"I take full responsibility for my actions," Wade told Judge Ricardo
Urbina after entering his plea to 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, former president of defense contractor MZM Inc. in Washington,
D.C., also acknowledged making nearly $80,000 in illegal campaign
contributions in the names of MZM employees and their spouses to
two other members of Congress, who were not identified.

Pentagon staff implicated

Prosecutors also laid out a second, separate conspiracy in which
Wade was alleged to have paid bribes to a Defense Department
official and other employees in return for their help in awarding
contracts to his company. Wade pleaded guilty to this scheme as
well. The Pentagon employees were not named in court filings.

Wade has been cooperating with federal prosecutors in Washington
and San Diego in their ongoing investigation of the Cunningham
bribery case, 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 have been identified elsewhere.

MZM does classified intelligence work for the military. MZM's
government contracts soared from less than $1 million a year to
tens of millions of dollars annually in recent years.

$140,000 yacht

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.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11535676/

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