Who, when unknown in Cunningham case

By Onell R. Soto
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

December 2, 2005

Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham has admitted to taking more than $2.4 million in bribes from two Pentagon contractors and a New York businessman.

He also said another man, a financier from Long Island, N.Y., participated in the criminal conspiracy that forced him to resign from the congressional seat he has held for nearly 15 years.

Cunningham's naming of names is part of a deal to help federal prosecutors convict those who plied him with bribes including cash, a Rolls-Royce and antique furniture.

Federal investigators have amassed a detailed trail of evidence in the case, including check numbers, credit-card transactions and bank accounts after questioning dozens of people.

Given the amount of evidence and Cunningham's cooperation, it is still unclear whether or when prosecutors will charge those who may have paid the bribes. And whether there are others, beyond the four identified in Cunningham's plea agreement, who could face charges.

Prosecutors will say only that "the investigation is continuing."

Lawyers for the two contractors also aren't commenting, and repeated efforts to reach lawyers for the two New York men have been unsuccessful.

But the case laid out in Cunningham's plea agreement suggests to legal experts that it won't be long before there are other plea bargains or indictments.

"It's not a whodunit," said San Diego criminal defense lawyer Eugene Iredale. "It's 'When do we schedule the arraignment?' "

That could happen within the next month or six months from now, he said.

If they haven't done so already, lawyers for the four people listed as "co-conspirators" in the court papers likely are lining up to talk to prosecutors, said Marc Carlos, another San Diego criminal defense lawyer.

"It's like a boat," Carlos said. "You don't want to be the last person on the boat."

In a situation like this, he said, the first to approach prosecutors and pledge to cooperate gets the best deal.

Cunningham, 63, pleaded guilty Monday to tax evasion and conspiracy to accept bribes, evade taxes and commit wire and mail fraud.

Legal experts agree that had the congressman not struck a deal, prosecutors likely had enough evidence to file dozens of additional charges against him.

The eight-term Republican faces up to 10 years in prison at a sentencing hearing scheduled for Feb. 27. He'll have to forfeit to the government $1.8 million cash, his share of any proceeds from the sale of his Rancho Santa Fe home and a variety of lavish gifts.

Although the co-conspirators are not named in the plea agreement, Justice Department officials say they are:

 Brent Wilkes, owner of ADCS Inc., a Poway firm that has received more than $80 million in federal contracts since 1996. Wilkes paid more than $636,000 in bribes, according to the plea deal.

 Mitchell Wade, founder of Washington, D.C.,-based MZM Inc., which received more than $163 million in federal contracts. He bought Cunningham's Del Mar-area home for $1.675 million in 2003 and sold it for a $700,000 loss after it languished on the market for nearly nine months. He also paid more than $1.1 million in bribes, according to the plea agreement.

 Thomas Kontogiannis, a Long Island developer who paid $200,000 to help Cunningham purchase a Virginia condominium with a view of the Potomac River. He once sought the congressman's advice on getting a presidential pardon after being convicted in a bid-rigging scheme involving contracts with New York public schools. Kontogiannis ultimately decided not to pursue a pardon. The plea agreement says he paid Cunningham more than $328,000.

 John T. Michael, who is the nephew of Kontogiannis' wife and the president of a Long Island mortgage company. His company was used as a conduit for some of the money Cunningham received, according to the plea agreement.

It's impossible to determine from Cunningham's plea agreement whether the congressman was the first to cooperate with authorities in an investigation that stretches from San Diego to Washington, D.C.

But the details in the 33-page document indicate that for at least five years, Cunningham demanded and received a variety of bribes that culminated in his purchase of a $2.5 million Rancho Santa Fe mansion with dirty money in 2004.

The list of bribes and the means by which they were paid to Cunningham take up 11 pages of the plea agreement, a sign that he wasn't the only one talking to prosecutors, Carlos said.

"I believe that other people supplied that information to the U.S. Attorney's Office," he said. "There's no way that Cunningham came in and said, 'I did this, this and this on this date.' "

A San Diego grand jury had been hearing testimony in the Cunningham case for several months after authorities began an investigation after a Copley News Service article about the Del Mar-area home sale appeared June 12 in The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Cunningham met with prosecutors and agreed to plead guilty to ward off an indictment.

Typically, people in that situation don't volunteer much information, said Weldon Keating, a retired FBI agent from San Diego. "They come in and verify what we're already going to charge them on," he said.

In a tearful statement Monday, Cunningham said his guilt prompted him to ask his lawyers to talk to prosecutors about pleading guilty before he knew all the evidence against him.

He talked about how he'd cooperate with the investigation to atone for his crimes.

He has little choice if he wants prosecutors to whittle down the possible10-year prison sentence he's facing.

He agreed to be interviewed, take polygraph exams, submit documents and "tell everything (he) knows about every person involved presently or in the past directly or indirectly" in his crimes, according to his plea agreement.

"If the other four gentlemen are indicted, the government is going to call on Mr. Cunningham to testify against one or more of these people, any one that goes to trial," said Douglas McNabb, a federal criminal defense lawyer with offices in Texas and Washington, D.C.

Although it's possible that prosecutors will decide not to charge the people listed as "co-conspirators" in the court documents, the designation is notable because it means authorities believe they are responsible for moving the conspiracy forward.

By comparison, when prosecutors indicted former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, they referred to a senior White House official who talked about a CIA agent to a reporter simply as "Official A."

"By saying 'co-conspirator,' the government is representing this other person made an agreement to violate the law," said Iredale, the criminal defense lawyer.