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ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A former CIA agent rose to the agency's No. 3 rank despite a record of misconduct that stretched over 20 years, prosecutors said, until his career came to an end with his conviction in a bribery scheme. In court papers, prosecutors describe how Kyle "Dusty" Foggo was investigated in the late 1980s for punching a bicyclist in a traffic dispute and for numerous relationships with foreign women that could have compromised security. ... Instead, Foggo is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria after pleading guilty to a single count of fraud as...

A former high-ranking official of the Central Intelligence Agency pleaded guilty this morning in Virginia to one count of defrauding the United States in a corruption case that stemmed from the bribery scandal that brought down former U.S. Congressman Randall "Duke" Cunningham. Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, 53, who was the former Executive Director of the CIA, admitted he concealed his close relationship with contractor Brent Wilkes in a scheme that steered lucrative contracts toward Wilkes' company, according to federal prosecutors. Foggo faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release at a...

A New York financier was sentenced Friday to more than eight years in federal prison for laundering bribes to former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham. A tearful Thomas Kontogiannis apologized and pleaded for leniency, but District Judge Larry Burns ordered him to serve eight years and one month in prison. Prosecutors wanted the maximum 10-year sentence. "You caused people to think ... this (system) doesn't work," Burns told Kontogiannis. "I just hope the opportunity is given to me to make good to the people that I let down," Kontogiannis said. Kontogiannis, 59, pleaded guilty one count of money laundering in...

SAN DIEGO A defense contractor has been sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for bribing former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham with cash, meals, trips and other gifts in exchange for nearly $90 million in Pentagon work. Brent Wilkes showed no emotion as U.S. District Judge Larry Burns delivered the sentence Tuesday in San Diego.

SAN DIEGO – Federal probation officials are recommending that Brent Wilkes, the Poway defense contractor who was convicted of bribing former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, should be sentenced to 60 years in prison, according to court records. Wilkes was scheduled to be sentenced next Monday, but that has been postponed until Feb. 19 at the request of his lawyer, Mark Geragos. In court papers, Geragos said he needed more time to analyze and challenge the report from the federal probation office, which he received Jan. 15 – later than required under court rules. Such a lengthy sentence recommendation, even in...

SAN DIEGO --- A jury on Monday found a Poway defense contractor guilty of bribing former North County Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham. The contractor, Brent Wilkes, was charged with bribing the Republican politician with more than $625,000 in cash on top of luxury vacations and jet boats in exchange for millions of taxpayer dollars in the form of contracts for his company. Wilkes faced 13 counts: one count of conspiracy, one count of bribery, one count of money laundering and 10 counts of wire fraud. He was found guilty on all counts Monday morning. The 53-year-old San Diego County native...

SAN DIEGO - Attorneys for the House of Representatives asked a federal judge Wednesday to quash subpoenas for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, House Republican Whip Roy Blunt and 10 other members of Congress in the trial of a defense contractor charged with bribing jailed former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham. The subpoenas were sent by attorneys for Brent Wilkes, whose trial begins Tuesday on charges that he paid Cunningham $700,000 in exchange for government contracts. The contractor has pleaded not guilty to 25 counts of bribery, fraud, money laundering and conspiracy. Cunningham, an eight-term Republican from San Diego, is serving...

A federal prosecutor in the Randy “Duke” Cunningham case calls it a coincidence that the daughter of a key witness in the scandal purchased a home from the prosecutor's late uncle. Assistant U.S. Attorney Phillip Halpern, one of four prosecutors in the case, had not seen his father's brother, Leonard Halpern, for about four years prior to the uncle's death in 2003. Further, he was not an heir to his uncle's estate and received no money from the sale of the Nassau County, N.Y, property in 2005. The details are contained in court papers filed Wednesday by prosecutors asking a...

New charges have been filed alleging that the CIA's former No. 3 official used his influence in that role to support a proposed $100 million government contract for his best friend, a defense contractor, in return for lavish vacations, private jet flights and a lucrative job offer. The indictment, returned Thursday by a federal grand jury in San Diego, supersedes charges brought in February against career CIA man Kyle "Dusty" Foggo and Poway-based contractor Brent Wilkes. The charges grew from the bribery scandal that landed former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham in prison. Foggo resigned from the spy agency a...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- FBI agents have searched the Oakton, Va., home of California GOP Rep. John Doolittle, who is under investigation in the congressional corruption investigation surrounding convicted GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Doolittle's attorney said Wednesday. The search last Friday focused on records of Doolittle's wife's company, Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions Inc., said attorney David Barger.

FBI Raids Doolittle's Home: The FBI has raided the Northern Virginia home of Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.), according to Congressional sources. No details are publicly available yet about the circumstances of the raid, but Doolittle and his wife, Julie, have been under federal investigation for their ties to the scandal surrounding imprisoned former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

A House committee chairman is asking the White House for information about a contract awarded to MZM Inc., a company that was run by a defense contractor who pleaded guilty to bribing jailed GOP ex-Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, released a letter to the White House on Monday asking for details on a $140,000 contract awarded to MZM in July 2002 by the Executive Office of the President, reportedly to provide computers and furniture for the vice president's office. Waxman, who chairs the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said the inquiry was part of his...

Senate Democrats signaled Sunday that of the eight U.S. attorneys abruptly fired by the Bush administration, the case in San Diego is emerging as the most troubling because of new allegations that U.S. Attorney Carol Lam was fired in a direct attempt to shut down investigations into Republican politicians in Southern California. ...Lam spearheaded the case against Randy "Duke" Cunningham, the former Republican congressman from Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., who pleaded guilty to bribery and income-tax evasion. He was sentenced in March 2006 to eight years and four months in prison.

Three House committees subpoenaed in connection with the bribery investigation into imprisoned former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham and his associates reached an agreement with federal prosecutors Tuesday allowing the subpoenas to be withdrawn, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. Under the agreement, five outstanding subpoenas will be withdrawn and the committees will voluntarily hand over documents in addition to material already provided, according to a statement released by Brendan Daly, a spokesman for Pelosi. Two committee staffers will appear March 1 before the grand jury in San Diego that has been considering evidence stemming from the Cunningham case,...

When indicted Poway defense contractor Brent Wilkes landed a contract to ship supplies to CIA agents in Iraq, he tapped his nephew and lobbyist Joel Combs to handle the job, according to people close to Wilkes and within the CIA. On July 29, 2004, Combs – who had no previous experience in overseas supply operations – formed a one-man company called Archer Logistics in Chantilly, Va., records with the Virginia State Corporation Commission show. Within months, Archer Logistics was selling bottles of water to the CIA, more than half a dozen sources have told The San Diego Union-Tribune. Those sales...

SAN DIEGO – Poway defense contractor Brent Wilkes and former CIA official Kyle “Dusty” Foggo began their legal proceedings in San Diego's federal court Wednesday. After arriving at the downtown courthouse amid cameras and flanked by their attorneys, the two men entered not guilty pleas to charges of conspiracy, money laundering and defrauding the public of the honest services of a public official. Wilkes also pleaded not guilty to a charge of bribing of a public official. He is to remain free on $2 million bond, which will be secured by equity in his home and the homes of two...

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Government officials say a federal grand jury has charged a former top CIA official and a defense contractor with fraud and other offenses.

WASHINGTON - CIA officers operating in northern Iraq bought drinking water from a bottling plant there for years prior to the 2003 invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein. That changed soon afterward. A CIA officer handling logistics for the Middle East and other regions recommended that an American company provide water and other supplies, according to former government officials. The U.S. contractor that benefited from the multimillion-dollar deal wasn't just anyone. The company had personal ties to the officer, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, who would soon leave his logistics post in Frankfurt, Germany, and move to Washington to become the CIA's third-ranking...

Federal prosecutors are preparing to seek indictments against a former top CIA official and a San Diego defense contractor at the center of the bribery scandal that sent former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham to prison. Two government officials familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press on Wednesday that prosecutors plan to ask a San Diego grand jury to return charges of honest services fraud and conspiracy against Kyle "Dusty" Foggo and his close friend, Brent Wilkes, whose lawyers have said he is one of four unidentified co-conspirators described in the 2005 plea agreement for Cunningham, a San Diego...

The U.S. attorney's office in San Diego is close to seeking an indictment against Brent Wilkes, a Poway defense contractor whose company received millions of dollars in government contracts after allegedly bribing the now-imprisoned Randy "Duke" Cunningham, two federal officials with intimate knowledge of the case said Tuesday. "I know we are so close," said one official, who agreed to speak with the North County Times on the condition that his name not be published. A preliminary draft indictment is under review by "many eyes on what is going to be proposed to the grand jury," according to the source....