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Cunningham Briber Hit with $1 Million Fine for Fake Contribs
Mitchell Wade, that other high-profile (alleged) briber of Duke Cunningham, got hit with a $1 million fine from the Federal Election Commission, what the commission calls "the second largest penalty ever paid in the 32-year history of the FEC."
Update: We neglected to mention that the settlement was a result of a complaint from watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
The fine is for reimbursing employees at his firm MZM for $78,000 in contributions they made to Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) and ex-Rep. Katharine Harris (R-FL). Another MZM exec, Richard Berglund, got hit with a $42,000 fine. Both of them have already pled guilty to criminal charges for the scheme. Berglund was sentenced earlier this year to a year of probation and $5,000 in fines. Wade continues to cooperate with the government in its ongoing investigation of his bribery activities, recently testifying against fellow contractor Brent Wilkes at his trial.
Although Jim King, formerly an aide to Michael Hayden when the CIA chief ran the National Security Agency, was also under investigation by the FEC for his contributions at MZM, the FEC did not to fine him.
The FEC makes a point of saying that it uncovered no evidence that either Goode or Harris knew about the scheme. Wade wooed both of them in order to get earmarks for MZM facilities. In both cases, he was successful -- only Harris bungled the job and failed to land the $10 million she was seeking. Goode requested a total of $9 million for the Foreign Supplier Assessment Center in his Virginia district, which MZM was hired to run. Unfortunately, the center folded after Wade pled guilty, sticking the town, Martinsville, with the bill.
WOW, I wonder what VECO's fine is going to be! Don Young alone returned 38,000 of illegal VECO money.
October 31, 2007 4:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Anyone know a senator I can bribe? Looks pretty lucrative to me. I can get some billion dollar contracts without worry of scrutiny or having to actually do the work... put a few hundred million in Barbados... and if caught... probation and a million dollar fine ( which really isn't a fine but a reimbursement owed to employees).
Sure beats going to Iraq for a few years and running into a bomb because the money which could have been used for safety was given away for bribe money... and used for who know what...
So much for our leadership actually caring for our dying soldiers, the common folk or our ancestors who died to get us where we are now...
So sad... for everyone but the crooks...
October 31, 2007 4:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well I allways wondered what the FEC was good for now I know. It's in place to protect money launderers from criminal prosecution.
October 31, 2007 6:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
****anonymouse*** right on...exactly right.
May I suggest you begin with Jay Rockefeller, his donations from the telecoms has skyrocketed over the last year in their attempt to get amnesty for spying on Americans illegally. Looks like their getting what they bribed for since Jay is insistent on granting them immunity. Then there's Fienstein who let Southwick's nomination get out of committee voting against her own party in a tie breaker to get this obvious Bushie Judicial nominee on to the floor for a vote to the 2nd highest court in the land...Feinstein's husband is making a killing (no pun) as a defense contractor from the Iraq war. Enough money or favors in kickbacks and they'll deal...they been doing it for years.
There's a longer list...(Bob Nelson and Sparkovski appointment to the FEC etc.)
It cost 1 trillion to invade and occupy Iraq but the oil companies stand to make 30 trillion from the oil revenue profits. If we were to bust and fine the oil companies 2trillion for getting us into this mess they still stand to make 27 trillion. This does not even take into consideration the loss of life and property. They will be high on the hog for at least a generation or two. Sometimes a fine is just not adequate to rectify or penalize the situation because of all the residue. MZM should not be allowed to operate a business in or involving the US and its CEO should not be allowed to hold or occupy or receive public contracts or positions or dealins with same...a form of banishment in business with and within the US.
Now...for the jail sentences...
October 31, 2007 8:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Some trust fund prosecutor, got off-message at Yale, thinks he's gonna run this up the flagpole, make a name for himself, maybe get elected some two-bit, congressman from nowhere, with the result that Russia or China can suddenly start having, at our expense, all the advantages we enjoy here. No, I tell you. No, sir. Corruption charges! Corruption? Corruption is government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulations. That's Milton Friedman. He got a goddamn Nobel Prize. We have laws against it precisely so we can get away with it. Corruption is our protection. Corruption keeps us safe and warm. Corruption is why you and I are prancing around in here instead of fighting over scraps of meat out in the streets. Corruption is why we win.
October 31, 2007 10:23 PM | Reply | Permalink