Posted on 02/28/2006 7:38:49 PM PST by NormsRevenge
The contracts former Rep. Randy Duke Cunningham bullied the Defense Department into awarding two contractors who showered him with money and gifts were not in the national interest, according to documents filed by prosecutors Tuesday.
Instead, the prosecutors said, Cunningham and his co-conspirators fleeced the people of the United States to the tune of millions of dollars, earning profit margins on some contracts in excess of 800 percent.
In the most detailed description yet of the former congressman's bribery case, prosecutors offered graphic examples of how Cunningham browbeat and intimidated government officials and his own staff into ensuring that millions of dollars went into the pockets of select contractors.
In return, Cunningham demanded and received more than $2.4 million in bribes. Cunningham has pleaded guilty to tax evasion, honest-services fraud and conspiracy to commit bribery. He has resigned from Congress, lost his Rancho Santa Fe home and faces a 10-year prison term at a federal court hearing Friday.
One of Cunningham's staff members told investigators of hiding under his desk to escape Cunningham's wrath because one of the contractors had not received a government appropriation. And Pentagon officials told of the former Navy flying ace's efforts to have them fired and going over their heads because they questioned the legitimacy of some of the contracts.
The evidence indicates that Cunningham's motivation was to ensure that his co-conspirators gorged themselves at the national trough regardless of the national interest, prosecutors said.
Cunningham's lawyers are asking that he be sentenced to six years in prison, rather than the maximum term of 10 years sought by prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Diego.
The prosecutors noted that the scope of Cunningham's corruption was so vast that had he gone to trial and lost, he could be spending the rest of his life in prison.
The acts he admitted could have resulted in bribery, money laundering and fraud charges with a 30-year sentence, far beyond the 64-year-old Cunningham's life expectancy, they said.
They said the 10-year sentence they are seeking already reflects significant leniency.
Former defense contractor Mitchell Wade pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington, D.C., Friday to conspiring to funnel more than $1 million in bribes to Cunningham and making illegal campaign contributions to two other members of Congress.
While not named in the plea agreement, the two representatives areidentifiable through campaign finance records as Republican Reps. VirgilGoode of Virginia and Katherine Harris of Florida. Neither has beenaccused of criminal wrongdoing.
Wade, the founder and former president of MZM Inc., also admitted toconspiring with an official of the Army's National Ground IntelligenceCenter in Charlottesville, Va., to defraud the Defense Department.
Wade's purchase of Cunningham's Del Mar-area house figured prominently inthe former congressman's own guilty plea in the fall. Wade boughtCunningham's house for $1.675 million in November 2003 and then sold iteight months later at a $700,000 loss.
The businessman began providing information to the government shortlyafter the tainted sale of Cunningham's house was disclosed in a CopleyNews Service story published June 12 in The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Wade is one of four co-conspirators in the plea agreement andsentencing memorandum for Cunningham. The other co-conspirators are BrentWilkes, owner of Poway-based ADCS Inc.; Thomas Kontogiannis, a LongIsland, N.Y., developer; and John Michael, the nephew of Kontogiannis'wife and president of a Long Island mortgage company.
Wade pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy and single counts ofelection fraud and using interstate facilities to promote bribery. Hefaces a prison sentence of up to 11 years. No sentencing date was set.
In earlier court papers, San Diego federal prosecutors listed other details of Cunningham's crimes, including a bribe menu found on Cunningham's boat that detailed in his own writing how much it would cost Pentagon contractors for each million dollars in business steered their way.
The menu offered a $16 million contract in exchange for a $140,000 yacht.The bribes then grew by $50,000 for every $1 million in additionalfunding, according to the list, which included a volume discount as thecontracts grew.
Cunningham was voted into Congress on his reputation as a war hero. A Navyfighter ace during the Vietnam War and later a Top Gun flightinstructor, he was elected in 1990. In 1998, he was named to the HouseAppropriations Committee, where he served on the defense subcommittee.
He also sat on the House Intelligence Committee and was chairman of asubcommittee overseeing human intelligence analysis andcounterintelligence.
His assignments put him in a position to influence a wide variety of government contracts, prosecutors noted.
In their court papers, defense lawyers presented a report from a psychiatrist who said Cunningham's fall from Vietnam War heroto corrupt politician grew out of an outsized ego and a mantle ofinvulnerability that allowed him to rationalize his behavior.
That mindset evolved from a military career in which Cunningham was taughtto embrace aggressive tactics and ignore danger signs and enabled him toperform heroically during the Vietnam War, the doctor said.
Those traits, imperative for fighter pilots, were so ingrained inCunningham that although he was expected to behave differently in Congress,the psyche cannot make such a U-turn easily, said Dr. Saul Faerstein.
That analysis is disputed by other medical experts and another former Navy aviator. Faerstein also said Cunningham suffers from a major depressive disorder, is suicidal and is terrified about his pending imprisonment.
In the nine-page report, the Beverly Hills psychiatrist examinedCunningham's life history and documented myriad physical and psychologicalailments for which he is taking a wide assortment of medications.
Defense lawyers said Cunningham has fought prostate cancer and diabetes and has a life expectancy of seven years. A long sentence might mean he dies in prison, they said.
Next up, Brent Wilkes?
He earned more than the 10 year plea. I say this even though I know Duke and have supported him in the past.
Makes ya wonder why some would say we ought to close Gitmo.. I'd say we have some more legitimate candidates in the works in this case...
Very disappointing. I always admired him until this broke, he deserves the ten.
Now, if they send him to a Club Fed for six years, I'm with you.
Every time I read more on this case, it saddens me how the man he was, the shear dicipline to do the right things, strive for excellance in ACM, feel he violated God's will, when shooting down goops but went back in and continued to serve in harms way, end in this mode. We humans are so fragil in many ways. We take our eyes off God's rules and then have to pay the price, and the price is often to much to bear. I hate to see him end up in the klink away from his loved ones. But he broke the law.
Wow...how unthinkable inside the beltway. Sure glad Cunningham is the only Washington politician gorging himself at the national trough. If any democrats were "gorging", I'm sure the Union Trib would be reporting on it...right.
In any case, anyone know how Cunningham got convicted so quick? Doesn't it usually take years to try a case like this...unless it's a "kangeroo" court? Last time I recall a criminal trial wrapping up so fast was the guy they convicted of Martin Luther King's assassination. I remember thinking at the time, this looks like a rigged deal...sort of like the US senate's impeachment trial of clintoon. Then...wouldn't you know...years later, the King family themselves publicly announced that the guy serving time (I can't remember his name) was NOT the killer. Don't think they ever announced who the real killer was. Needless to say I have serious doubts about the validity of the Cunningham trial and outcome. My guess is someone pretty big wanted him out of the way...someone with enough heat to make him confess.
Yes, it saddens me,too. Is he married? children?
"One of Cunningham's staff members told investigators of hiding under his desk to escape Cunningham's wrath because one of the contractors had not received a government appropriation."
Monica?
There's no conspiracy. It was a plea agreement. He pleaded guilty--no trial.
He was married. I don't know if he has any children. I only reference him from reading books that discribed his exploits as a Naval Aviator. And by all indications he appeared to be a really great person in many ways. Trying to please God, working his tail off to be the best he could be, obviose to most entering combat with enemy aircraft and earning 5 Mig kills, and teaching at Top Gun. He became a sort of ICON, a war hero.
Now he's just a crook. I plain don't understand greed among other things.
Pure Psychobabble Bull$hit.
One of the things drilled into you at TopGun and in the Navy in general, is how to recognize a bad position and evade. Better to live to fight again, than to die stupid.
Watch out when you bend over for soap in the pen, Duke.
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