Mitchell Wade

In Scandal's Aftermath, Painful Prices Still Being Paid

Justin Rood | July 30, 2006, 10:33AM

It's official: the Virginia defense facility run -- on taxpayer dollars -- by one of the central felons in the Duke Cunningham scandal is closing Monday.

The news comes just days after the Pentagon announced it would not renew the contract for the Martinsville-based Foreign Supplier Assessment Center, which was created and sustained largely through earmarks from Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA). Goode received over $90,000 in contributions from Mitchell Wade, who's spilling his guts to federal investigators in an attempt to dodge jail time.

Who's it bad news for? Just about everyone involved. Goode's getting slammed for bringing MZM to town, winning the company unusually generous financial perks and sending the bill to the city. "Rep. Goode forgot whom he should represent when he brokered a deal favorable to campaign contributors at the risk of his district," the Roanoke (Va.) Times opined Saturday.

It's bad news for MZM -- now Athena Innovative Solutions. Sources tell me this is not the only one of their contracts getting cut. The Pentagon trimmed more than 30 positions from an Athena contract to provide employees to the Counterintelligence Field Activity office (CIFA), according to two former MZM employees who are in touch with current Athena staffers.

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Virgil Goode

VA Lawmaker: Despite MZM Dealings, Still No Call from Feds

Justin Rood | July 25, 2006, 12:39PM

Last week we learned the Feds have hit up Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL) for information about her dealings with Mitchell Wade, the fraudster who's confessed to giving fraudulent "straw" donations to Harris, former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA), and a third lawmaker: Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA).

Bad news hit Goode's re-election campaign this weekend, when an employee of Wade's old company, MZM, pleaded guilty to making fraudulent contributions to Goode's campaign, and agreed to cooperate with investigators. To date, Justice has stated only that they do not have any indication Goode was aware the donations were fake. But the plea deal from senior MZM exec Richard Berglund raises the question: what if he knows something?

Duke's in jail, of course; and Harris is clearly an object of scrutiny for the Feds. But Goode, who took something close to $90,000 from Wade and other employees of his company, MZM -- and helped win them a sweet deal for a Defense Department facility in Goode's district -- insists the Feds have yet to reach his doorstep.

"He has not been" contacted by the DoJ, Goode spokesman Linwood Duncan told me this morning. That's about as flat a denial as one could ask for. Duncan had been more shaded in his comments to reporters this weekend, saying only that "as far as I know, nothing has changed" since March, when Goode had that he hadn't been contacted by investigators.

Mitchell Wade

Will Bribery Probe Nab Former Top Intel Official?

Justin Rood | July 3, 2006, 1:14PM

Is former top intelligence official James King under pressure from federal prosecutors?

If not, it looks like he should be. As we reported several weeks ago, King -- the former head of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency -- twice aided the bribery schemes of Mitchell Wade, making $12,000 in illegal campaign donations to help Wade buy favors from lawmakers.

At the time, King was a top executive at Wade's defense contracting firm, MZM. He took over the company, which is now named Athena Innovative Solutions, after Wade's felonies became public.

King could be a dangerous fellow to go down -- for many folks. He was a trusted aide to Michael V. Hayden, former NSA chief and now head of the CIA, who employed him as a contractor from MZM. While at MZM, King also played a key role in developing the Pentagon's troubled domestic spying operation, CIFA. And as a senior MZM executive, he was likely a witness to many of Wade's hijinks.

As the Washington Post reported Friday, Feds have convinced another MZM executive, Richard Berglund, to plead guilty to making the same kind of fraudulent donations. (Check out our guest-blogging TPM Reader DK's thoughts on this.)

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