Kyle Foggo

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Cunningham Scandal
A U.S. political scandal in which government contracts were obtained with bribes to Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham.
Guilty Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-CA) (8 years 4 months) Mitchell Wade (guilty plea) Indicted Kyle Foggo Brent Wilkes John T. Michael Named Thomas Kontogiannis ("co-conspirator #3")

Kyle Dustin "Dusty" Foggo (born March 17, 1954), is a former American government intelligence officer. He resigned as the Central Intelligence Agency's Executive Director (EXDIR), its third-ranking official, on May 8, 2006. His stated reason for resigning was that a new director should be able to choose his own deputies. Foggo was charged on February 13, 2007 with fraud and other offenses in the bribery case of convicted US congressman Randy Cunningham.

[edit] Biography

Foggo grew up in the San Diego, California area and attended San Diego State University. After brief experience in law enforcement, Foggo entered the CIA through the Presidential Management Intern program and has spent much of his career managing and awarding various contracts.

Foggo began in what was then known as the CIA's Directorate of Administration (DA) which handled a significant portion of the agency's contracting. He has spent most of his CIA career in Management General Services, but also did a stint in the Directorate of Science and Technology.

Foggo's early postings included stations in Europe and Latin America, including a position in Honduras in the 1980s where he worked with the US Ambassador to Honduras, John Negroponte, who would go on to become the Director of National Intelligence.

Prior to becoming executive director, Foggo was chief of the CIA's support base in Germany, the base responsible for providing Middle East stations (including Iraq) with logistical support.

As EXDIR, he was responsible for executive management of the CIA bureaucracy. He was appointed by then-director of the CIA Porter Goss. He was recommended to Goss because he had served in all four of the Agency's directorates.

During the course of his CIA career, Foggo had received a number of commendations for exceptional performance, he had been decorated for his dedication to mission and his ability to accomplish requirements under difficult circumstances.

[edit] Criminal investigation

Foggo was charged on Feburary 13, 2007 with fraud and other offenses in the bribery case of US congressman Randy Cunningham.

Foggo is also currently under investigation by the CIA inspector general for involvement in the Cunningham corruption investigation due to his personal and professional connections with Cunningham co-conspirator Brent Wilkes. Other agencies involved in the investigation include the FBI, IRS, Defense Criminal Investigative Service and the United States Attorney's Office in San Diego.[1]

The Cunningham scandal involved defense contractors who paid bribes to members of Congress, and officials in the Defense Department, in return for political favors in the form of federal contracts. Most notable amongst the recipients of the bribes was Rep. Cunningham who pleaded guilty to receiving over $2.3 million in bribes. The primary defense contractors were Mitchell Wade (owner of MZM), who also pleaded gulty, and Brent Wilkes (owner of ADCS Inc.). Wilkes was named as "co-conspirator #1" in Cunningham's plea agreement. All three are from the San Diego area.

Foggo is a long time friend of Wilkes. They attended school together at Hilltop High School in Chula Vista and San Diego State University, served as best men in each other's weddings, and named their sons after each other. [2]

Suspicions were raised when Foggo, a mid-level career manager, was promoted to be the number three official of the CIA. Investigations have centered on whether Foggo helped steer agency contracts to companies run by Wilkes. Specifically, "according to two intelligence sources who spoke with National Journal, one of Wilkes's corporations received at least one CIA contract -- to supply water to CIA personnel in Iraq during the U.S. invasion in 2003." [3]

On May 8, 2006, Newsweek reported:

[A] source has told Newsweek that Foggo had acknowledged to associates that he may have tipped off Wilkes that CIA contracts were coming up for bid—an activity which, according to the source, Foggo said was neither improper nor illegal. The source is close to a group of poker players who took part in a 1999 game arranged by Wilkes and attended by Foggo, Cunningham and a nine-fingered former CIA officer named Brant Bassett, who worked for Goss when the outgoing CIA chief was House Intelligence Committee chair. Foggo denies giving Wilkes any such tip-offs, according to another source close to the outgoing CIA official; Bassett and lawyers for Wilkes and Cunningham had no comment. [4]

Also on May 8, 2006, The 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. [5]

On Friday, May 12, 2006, the Copley News Service reported that Foggo's home in Vienna, Virginia had been raided by federal agents. The agents reportedly refused to answer questions about the purpose of the raid or what agency they represented.

On Tuesday February 13, 2007, Foggo and Brent Wilkes were indicted by the US Attorney's Office in San Diego.