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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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November 6th,
2007 - Jury Finds Wilkes Guilty |
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Contractor convicted of conspiracy and bribery in Cunningham scandal By Greg Moran San Diego Union-Tribune November 6, 2007 A federal jury convicted
Poway defense contractor Brent Wilkes yesterday for his role in engineering
the biggest bribery scheme in congressional history, a verdict that closed
another chapter in the scandal surrounding former Rep. Randy “Duke”
Cunningham. Wilkes stood with his hands
clasped in front of him next to his lawyer, Mark Geragos, as the court clerk
read the word “guilty” 13 times in the packed courtroom of Judge Larry A.
Burns. He was convicted of
conspiracy, bribery, money laundering and honest services wire fraud. He
shook his head “no” slightly and gave a small frown twice – once at the start
of the litany, and again when the conviction for bribery was announced. Other than that, he showed
no emotion, and left the courthouse without commenting. U.S. Attorney Karen Hewitt
said in a statement afterward that she was “gratified” by the verdict. Geragos, however, said that
the verdict “was fatally flawed” and that the defense had “more than ample
evidence to raise reasonable doubt.” “I fully expected the worst
case to be a hung jury,” he said. Wilkes faces more than 20
years in prison when he is sentenced Jan. 28. The jury of seven men and
five women deliberated four days before announcing they had reached a verdict
just before 11:30 a.m. yesterday. Most of the panel declined to comment, but
the forewoman said the evidence against Wilkes was too strong. Tyheshia Smith-Kruck, a
microbiologist, said the testimony of Wilkes' nephew, Joel Combs, and former
defense contractor Mitchell Wade was important to her. Wade pleaded guilty to
bribing Cunningham and agreed to testify against Wilkes in the hopes of
getting a lighter sentence. Combs, one of the first employees Wilkes hired at
his company, ADCS Inc., gave jurors an insider's view of the company. Combs recalled how Wilkes
showered Cunningham with gifts and enjoyed ready access to the congressman
for years. He said he was instructed not to put Cunningham's name on company
expense reports and records. While that testimony and the
documents prosecutors amassed against Wilkes were persuasive, the forewoman
said she would have liked to hear from Cunningham. “I thought Cunningham would
be put on the stand. I was surprised he wasn't,” Smith-Kruck said. “It would
have been nice to hear his perspective on what happened, seeing he is at the
center of all this.” The jury, however, did hear
from Wilkes. He testified in his own
defense for almost two days. He blamed Wade for bribing Cunningham, said
Combs was not as central a figure in his company as prosecutors contended,
and offered an explanation for nearly every accusation the government made
against him. Smith-Kruck was not
convinced. “I really didn't believe
anything he had to say,” she said. Wilkes insisted he was
innocent almost as soon as the indictment charging him was unsealed Feb. 13.
He accused prosecutors then of manufacturing the charges against him for
political reasons and said he would be vindicated. During the three-week trial,
prosecutors laid out a largely circumstantial bribery case, knitting together
a pattern of gift-giving by Wilkes to Cunningham over nearly a decade. Former
Cunningham staffers testified about the cozy relationship between the two
men, and Pentagon officials testified about interactions with the pair. In exchange for the gifts,
Cunningham did Wilkes' bidding – promoting congressional earmarks that would
help ADCS, and berating bureaucrats to steer work to Wilkes, prosecutors
said. One Pentagon official
testified he got such a call from Cunningham while he was in Europe on NATO
business. There were expensive meals,
computers and trips on private planes to fancy resorts, including a
$6,600-per-night stay at a Hawaiian beachfront hotel. That was the setting for the
most salacious allegation: that Wilkes had Combs hire two prostitutes for him
and the congressman. Both women testified about the encounter, although Wilkes
denied it. Smith-Kruck said the
prostitutes had no impact on her decision. Instead, she said, a $525,000 wire
transfer in May 2004 from Wilkes to a New York financial company was
important evidence of the scheme. That company was controlled
by Thomas Kontogiannis, who pleaded guilty in February to providing $1.1
million in mortgages to Cunningham for his Rancho Santa Fe mansion, even
though he knew the house was bought with proceeds from illegal activity. Wilkes testified that the
wire transfer was not, as the government said, a bribe to pay off Cunningham's
mortgage on the mansion. Instead, he said, it was a short-term investment he
made – at Cunningham's suggestion. But prosecutors noted that
there was no description of the investment, nor was there a contract or
prospectus that Wilkes received before or after the wire transfer. Wilkes
made the transfer just days before Cunningham paid off the mortgage. Smith-Kruck said both the
timing of the wire transfer and the lack of records Wilkes had about it
convinced her that it was a bribe, as the government said. Geragos, outside of court,
vowed an appeal. He said his client was “shocked” by the verdict and said he
believed the defense had raised reasonable doubt about the government's case. He told Burns he would make
a bid to get the conviction thrown out because grand jury secrets were leaked
by the government to the media before the indictment. He said he will subpoena at
least two reporters to testify about the source of their information. But
Shaun Martin, a professor at the University of San Diego School of Law, said
Geragos will have to show the verdict would have turned out differently – a
very high hurdle. Wilkes' sentence will likely
be longer than the eight-year, four-month term Cunningham received after the
Rancho Santa Fe Republican pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion and
admitted taking $2.4 million in bribes from Wilkes and others. Federal sentencing
guidelines carry strict punishments for bribery, even for someone with no
criminal past like Wilkes, said Martin. The value of the federal
contracts that prosecutors said Wilkes' company received as a result of
bribing the congressman will also weigh heavily. Prosecutors said he gave
Cunningham $625,000 in cash and tens of thousands more in gifts, and received
more than $80 million in contracts. “The more you steal, the
more that you benefit from your crime, the harsher the federal sentence,”
Martin said. “This guy got a lot of money. And as a result, he's going to get
a lot of time.” The problems for Wilkes,
once the highflying head of his own company, which he began in 1995, are far
from over. Wilkes, 53, faces trial in a
second case charging that he gave gifts, expensive golf vacations and
promises of a job to former CIA executive director Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, a
childhood friend, in return for Foggo's help in getting lucrative contracts
from the agency. Staff writers Dana
Littlefield and Angelica Martinez contributed to this report. External link: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20071106-9999-1n6wilkes.html |