Brent Wilkes

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Brent R. Wilkes (May 1954–) is a defense contractor, who became well known for his involvement with the Duke Cunningham defense contracting scandal.

Contents

[edit] Personal and business

Wilkes grew up in San Diego and graduated from San Diego State University in 1977 after studying accounting. Later, he went to work for a Southern California software company that was seeking federal contracts for converting paper documents to digital ones. He was George W. Bush's finance co-chairman in California, and also involved in Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign for governor. But it was as a federal contractor that he became involved with the Duke Cunningham bribery scandal, and other defense contractor corruption. Wilkes lives in Poway, California.

[edit] Corruption allegations

Cunningham Scandal
A U.S. political scandal in which government contracts were obtained with bribes to Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham.
Guilty
Named
  • Brent Wilkes ("co-conspirator #1")
  • Thomas Kontogiannis ("co-conspirator #3")
  • John T. Michael ("co-conspirator #4")

[edit] Involvement with the Cunningham Scandal

Main article: Duke Cunningham

As the Washington Post put it, "Wilkes was an obscure California contractor and lobbyist until his name surfaced last year as one of two defense contractors alleged to have given Cunningham $2.4 million in cash and other benefits in return for Cunningham's steering government business their way. One of Wilkes's companies received more than $80 million in Pentagon contracts over the past decade that stemmed from earmarks that Cunningham slipped into spending bills."[1]

In 1995 Wilkes started ADCS Inc. which stood for "automated document conversion systems." With Cunningham's help, he began winning contracts from the Pentagon.

"He snared a $1 million Pentagon contract in 1997, which Cunningham proclaimed "an asset" to San Diego. In 1999, ADCS was awarded a $9.7 million contract to convert documents in Panama. Subsequently, the company began collecting more than $20 million a year in defense business."[1]

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 beginning 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. [2]

However, "[t]he military never asked for the ADCS projects. In fact, in 2000 the Pentagon's inspector general blasted the company's biggest project, a $9.7 million contract to convert documents in Panama. The report said the program was created under pressure from two congressmen, whom Pentagon procurement officials have identified as Cunningham and Duncan Hunter (R-Calif), chairman of the Armed Services Committee," to whom Cunningham had also donated heavily. [3]

On November 28, 2005 Cunningham pled guilty, and on March 3, 2006, U.S. District Judge Larry A. Burns sentenced Cunningham to 100 months (eight years and four months) in prison, the longest ever given to a former member of congress.[4] The plea agreement mentioned four co-conspirators along with Cunningham: Wilkes, Mitchell Wade; New York businessman Thomas Kontogiannis (whom U.S. Coast Guard records show was involved in a questionable boat deal with Cunningham); and John T. Michael, Kontogiannis' nephew. The nephew is the owner of a New York-based mortgage company Coastal Capital Corp. Property records show the company made $1.15 million in real estate loans to Cunningham, two of which were used in the purchase of his Rancho Santa Fe mansion. Court records show that Wade paid off one of those loans.[5]

[edit] PerfectWave involvement with other Congressmen

After the release of the Pentagon report which criticized ADCS, Wilkes and a business associate, Max Gelwix, established PerfectWave Technologies LLC, which was trying to perfect a way to delete background noise from radio communications. PerfectWave and ADCS, plus Wilkes himself, owned a company called Group W Advisers, which sought government contracts and earmarks in defense appropriations bills.

[edit] DeLay and Doolittle

Effective as of April 1, 2002, Group W Advisers hired the Alexander Strategy Group, a lobby group run by Ed Buckham, the former chief of staff and spiritual advisor to then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and Tony Rudy, DeLay's former deputy chief of staff. (DeLay's wife, Christine, was working at the firm's office at the time. So was Representative John Doolittle's wife, Julie.) Wilkes and his friends donated heavily to DeLay, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Doolittle (R-Calif.). For example, by mid-April 2002, Wilkes, his executives and ADCS had donated $45,000 to ARMPAC so one of their executives could play golf with DeLay, Federal Election Commission records show.[citation needed]

Doolittle acknowledges steering money to PerfectWave but denies doing anything wrong. In a statement last month, he said his backing for PerfectWave was "based solely on the project's merits and the written support of the military.' But the only evidence Doolittle's office could provide to show military support for the project was a letter of praise from Robert Lusardi, a program manager for light armored vehicles at the Marine Corps dated Feb. 25 – two and a half years after PerfectWave got its first earmark. By the time Lusardi wrote his letter, the company had received at least $37 million in earmarks."[3]

[edit] Representative Lewis

Main article: Jerry Lewis - Lowery lobbying firm controversy

Wilkes also hired the lobbying firm of Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton & White, where former U.S. Congressman Bill Lowery was a partner from 1993 to 2006. Lowery was close friends with Congressman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) .

Since 1993, Wilkes and his associates gave Lewis $88,000 in contributions;[6] Lewis subsequently gave $56,000 of that to Habitat for Humanity.[7] Wilkes paid Copeland Lowery at least $385,000 in fees; by 2005, the firm's fees had increased to $25,000 a month.[8] [9]

In January 1999, Lewis became chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. In January 2005 he became chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

In an August 2006 interview, Wilkes said he considered dropping the firm, but that Lowery threatened to block future projects if their relationship ended. Wilkes said Lowery had warned several times that doing so could prompt Lewis to cut off earmarks, saying, “You don’t want me telling those guys on the committee that you are moving on without me.” That meant, Wilkes said, "I’d be out of business."[10]

In early 2006, Lewis has said that he barely knew Wilkes and that he did not remember seeing him in nearly a decade. But Wilkes says their relationship was closer than that. Ever since they went on a scuba-diving trip together in 1993, he said, Lewis had referred to him as his "diving buddy." They occasionally dined together or met at political functions, Wilkes said. At a Las Vegas fund-raiser in April 2005, Wilkes said, Lewis greeted him as "Brento" and hugged him as Wilkes surprised Lewis with $25,000 in campaign contributions.[10]

[edit] Current status

PerfectWave and Wilkes are still under investigation, as is Lewis.

[edit] Involvement with the CIA

In March 2006 the CIA announced that it was investigating the connection between Wilkes and the agency's No. 3 official, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, and whether Foggo helped Wilkes gain CIA contracts. By May, it was reported the FBI was also investigating. The reports were confirmed by a May 12, 2006 raid on his Vienna, Virginia home.

Foggo and Wilkes attended school together at Hilltop High School in Chula Vista and San Diego State University, served as best men in each other's weddings, named their sons after each other, and shared a wine locker at the Capital Grille in Washington D.C., a favorite lobbyists' retreat.[11]

Speaking on CNN, former Congressman Bob Barr (R-GA) suggested the corruption scandal as a possible reason behind CIA director Porter Goss's resignation.[12]

In May, the day after Goss' resignation, New York Daily News reported

The investigations have focused on the Watergate poker parties thrown by defense contractor Brent Wilkes, a high-school buddy of Foggo's, that were attended by disgraced former Rep. Randy (Duke) Cunningham and other lawmakers.

Foggo has claimed he went to the parties "just for poker" amid allegations that Wilkes, a top GOP fund-raiser and a member of the $100,000 "Pioneers" of Bush's 2004 reelection campaign, provided prostitutes, limos and hotel suites to Cunningham....

Wilkes hosted regular parties for 15 years at the Watergate and Westin Grand Hotels for lawmakers and lobbyists. Intelligence sources said Goss has denied attending the parties as CIA director, but that left open whether he may have attended as a Republican congressman from Florida who was head of the House Intelligence Committee.[13]

[edit] Connections to Tom DeLay money laundering case

AP reported that "Wilkes has been subpoenaed in the money-laundering case against former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas. Prosecutors want to hear from Wilkes about a contribution to a DeLay fundraising committee at the center of the investigation that led to indictments that pushed the GOP leader from office." [14]. Additionally, as noted above, Wilkes' company, Group W Advisers, hired the Alexander Strategy Group that employed DeLay's wife to lobby for acoustic technology for the Navy.

[edit] Illegal contributions in Mayoral race

In November 2005, the California state's watchdog agency, the Fair Political Practices Commission, filed a complaint against Wilkes. The substance of the complaint is that Wilkes attempted to circumvent San Diego's limit on individual campaign contributions with "straw contributions" (i.e., reimbursing others for their contributions). The complaint noted that 22 of his employees as ADCS or relatives of his employees gave $250 each to the 2002 San Diego mayoral campaign of Ron Roberts. The complaint was not released until July 2006 after receiving a public-records act request. [15]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Earmarks Became Contractor's Business Charles R. Babcock, Washington Post, February 20, 2006
  2. ^ Wilkes's Hospitality Suites
  3. ^ a b The power of persuasion, Dean Calbreath, San Diego Union-Tribune, February 5, 2006
  4. ^ "Crooked congressman going to prison", CNN, 2006-03-03. Retrieved on 2006-08-24.
  5. ^ Bennett, William Finn. "What's next in Cunningham bribery saga?", North County Times, 2006-03-06. Retrieved on 2006-08-24.
  6. ^ Kammer, Jerry, "A steady flow of financial influence: Close ties make Rep. Lewis, lobbyist Lowery a potent pair",Copely News Service, December 23, 2005.
  7. ^ Claire Vitucci, Michelle DeArmond, and Richard K. De Atley, "Lewis denies knowing of ethics investigation", Press-Enterprise, May 12, 2006
  8. ^ George Watson and Andrew Edwards, "Lewis denies report that he was being investigated", Redlands Daily Facts, May 12, 2006
  9. ^ Smith, R. Jeffrey, "Lobbying Firm Underreported Income: Some Clients Paid With Public or Tax-Exempt Funds in Bids for 'Earmarks'", Washington Post, July 6, 2006, p. A04. Retrieved on July 6, 2006
  10. ^ a b David Johnson and David D. Kirkpatrick, "Washington Deal Maker Details Palm Greasing", New York Times, August 6, 2006
  11. ^ Calbreath, Dean. "No. 3 CIA official investigated on ties to Wilkes", The San Diego Union-Tribune, 2006-03-04. Retrieved on 2006-08-24.
  12. ^ Kiel, Paul (2006-05-05). Barr: Hookergate to Blame for Hasty Goss Exit?. TPMmuckraker. Retrieved on 2006-08-24.
  13. ^ Sisk, Richard. "Behind the Goss toss", New York Daily News, 2006-05-07. Retrieved on 2006-08-24.
  14. ^ "Defense contractor appears in multiple corruption investigations", AP, July 6, 2006.
  15. ^ Michelle DeArmond and Michael Fisher. "Cunningham cohort is cited again", Inland Southern California Press-Enterprise, July 5, 2006.

[edit] External links

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