Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
November 6, 2007
Pg. 22
By Will Carless
SAN DIEGO, Nov. 5 — After almost four days of deliberation, a federal jury here on Monday convicted a former military contractor of 13 felonies related to the bribery of former Representative Randy Cunningham.
The contractor, Brent Wilkes, had pleaded not guilty to 13 charges of conspiracy, money laundering, wire fraud and bribery. Prosecutors contended that he provided Mr. Cunningham, a Republican, with more than $600,000 in bribes including prostitutes and trips around the country on private jets. In exchange, they said, Mr. Wilkes received millions of dollars in military contracts that Mr. Cunningham helped him procure by bullying Pentagon officials.
In 2005, Mr. Cunningham pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and tax evasion and resigned from office. He was sentenced to eight years in prison and is currently being held in Central Jail here, across the street from where Mr. Wilkes was tried.
The case featured colorful testimony from a parade of government witnesses, including Donna Rosetta, a prostitute who testified that she joined Mr. Cunningham and Mr. Wilkes in a hot tub outside their $6,600-a-night beachside bungalow in Hawaii, where Mr. Cunningham fed her grapes.
For years, prosecutors said, Mr. Wilkes treated Mr. Cunningham to expensive trips, paying for golf lessons, machine gun classes at a firing range and scuba trips.
In 2000 Mr. Wilkes paid $100,000 to Mr. Cunningham, ostensibly to buy a boat from him, the government said. But the congressman never relinquished the boat, prosecutors said.
With Mr. Cunningham pulling the strings, prosecutors said, Mr. Wilkes was able to secure millions of dollars of contracts for services like digitizing official documents. Often those contracts provided services the government did not want, the prosecutors said.
On one occasion, they said, Mr. Wilkes’s company, ADCS Inc. of Poway, Calif., simply bought basic computer equipment off the shelf and resold it to the government at a large profit.
“I don’t believe this case was proved beyond a reasonable doubt,” Mr. Wilkes’s lawyer, Mark Geragos, told The Associated Press outside court. “Obviously, I’m very disappointed. I think he shares the confidence that we’ll get it reversed.”
Mr. Wilkes is to be sentenced on Jan. 28. He faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison.
November 6, 2007
Pg. 22
By Will Carless
SAN DIEGO, Nov. 5 — After almost four days of deliberation, a federal jury here on Monday convicted a former military contractor of 13 felonies related to the bribery of former Representative Randy Cunningham.
The contractor, Brent Wilkes, had pleaded not guilty to 13 charges of conspiracy, money laundering, wire fraud and bribery. Prosecutors contended that he provided Mr. Cunningham, a Republican, with more than $600,000 in bribes including prostitutes and trips around the country on private jets. In exchange, they said, Mr. Wilkes received millions of dollars in military contracts that Mr. Cunningham helped him procure by bullying Pentagon officials.
In 2005, Mr. Cunningham pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and tax evasion and resigned from office. He was sentenced to eight years in prison and is currently being held in Central Jail here, across the street from where Mr. Wilkes was tried.
The case featured colorful testimony from a parade of government witnesses, including Donna Rosetta, a prostitute who testified that she joined Mr. Cunningham and Mr. Wilkes in a hot tub outside their $6,600-a-night beachside bungalow in Hawaii, where Mr. Cunningham fed her grapes.
For years, prosecutors said, Mr. Wilkes treated Mr. Cunningham to expensive trips, paying for golf lessons, machine gun classes at a firing range and scuba trips.
In 2000 Mr. Wilkes paid $100,000 to Mr. Cunningham, ostensibly to buy a boat from him, the government said. But the congressman never relinquished the boat, prosecutors said.
With Mr. Cunningham pulling the strings, prosecutors said, Mr. Wilkes was able to secure millions of dollars of contracts for services like digitizing official documents. Often those contracts provided services the government did not want, the prosecutors said.
On one occasion, they said, Mr. Wilkes’s company, ADCS Inc. of Poway, Calif., simply bought basic computer equipment off the shelf and resold it to the government at a large profit.
“I don’t believe this case was proved beyond a reasonable doubt,” Mr. Wilkes’s lawyer, Mark Geragos, told The Associated Press outside court. “Obviously, I’m very disappointed. I think he shares the confidence that we’ll get it reversed.”
Mr. Wilkes is to be sentenced on Jan. 28. He faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison.