Hookergate: How it all began...

Guilty

Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-CA) (8 years 4 months)

Mitchell Wade (guilty plea) owner of MZM

Indicted
Kyle Foggo (CIA)

Brent Wilkes owner of ADCS Inc

Named

Thomas Kontogiannis ("co-conspirator #3") helped Michael bribe

Cunningham

John T. Michael ("co-conspirator #4") Owner of a mortgage company in New York bribed Cunningham along with Kontogiannis.

Mitchell Wade:

In June 2005 it was revealed that Wade had bought Cunningham's house in Del Mar for $1,675,000. A month later, Wade placed it back on the market where it remained unsold for 8 months until the price was reduced to $975,000. Cunningham was a member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee; soon after the purchase, Wade began to receive tens of millions of dollars worth of defense and intelligence contracts


Later in June, it was further reported that the yacht that Cunningham lived on while he was in Washington was owned by Wade, and that Cunningham was paying only for maintenance, not rent. The Federal Bureau of Investigation launched an investigation regarding the real estate transaction. Cunningham's home, MZM's Corporate Offices and Wade's home were all simultaneously raided by a number of federal agencies with warrants on July 1, 2005


The money and favors provided to Cunningham were in exchange for helping win Pentagon work. "Government procurement records show that MZM, which Wade started in 1993, did not report any revenue from prime contract awards until 2003", but starting in May 2002 they were awarded contracts in the tens of millions of dollars which then grew to well over $150 million.

Brent Wilkes:

In 1995 Brent Wilkes started ADCS Inc. ("Automated Document Conversion Systems"). With Cunningham's help, he began winning contracts from the Pentagon.

In return, Wilkes rented hospitality suites at the Watergate Hotel and at the Westin Grand Hotel for Cunningham and other legislators and their guests. Wilkes hired Shirlington Limousine & Transportation Service of Virginia, starting in 1990, for entertainment at the Watergate Hotel. In 2005, the Department of Homeland Security granted Shirlington a $21 million contract. According to reports in the Wall Street Journal and the San Diego Union-Tribune, prostitutes regularly accompanied guests at the suites.

Other Members of Congress involved

Reuters reported:

In violation of campaign-finance laws, Wade was found to have reimbursed employees at his company, MZM Inc., who made campaign contributions to two other members of Congress. Campaign-finance records show that those lawmakers were Virginia Republican Rep. Virgil Goode and Florida Republican Rep. Katherine Harris. The charges indicate Wade did not inform either one that the contributions were unlawful. A spokeswoman for Harris, who as Florida's secretary of state played a key role in the 2000 disputed presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, said she had given the $52,000 she received from MZM employees to charity.