Poway man pleads innocent to scandal charges
Poway defense contractor Brent Wilkes has pleaded innocent to allegations he bribed and laundered money in connection with the scandal that led to the resignation and imprisonment of former U.S. Rep. Randall “Duke” Cunningham.
During a federal court appearance held in San Diego on Wednesday, Feb. 14, Wilkes and two co-defendants reportedly pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
the men are scheduled to appear in court again in April. Wilkes was given two weeks to raise $2 million bond, the reports said.
The pleas were in response to two separate indictments announced a day before by US Attorney Carol Lam and a team of federal investigators.
Wilkes is the head of Poway-based ADCS Inc. and numerous subsidiary companies prosecutors allege were shells designed to hide earnings from fraudulently obtained federal defense contracts.
Prosecutors allege Wilkes bestowed $700,000 worth of favors on Cunningham so that he may lobby for his company’s projects.
The alleged payoffs include $11,255 for a small boat, numerous luxury meals, limousine and corporate jet trips, and the service of two prostitutes during a three-day stay in a Hawaiian golf resort.
In the first indictment, Wilkes is accused of 25 charges including conspiracy to defraud the United States of Cunningham’s “honest services,” bribing a public official and numerous counts of money laundering.
In the same indictment, John Thomas Michael, a New York-based mortgage banker is accused of obstruction justice for allegedly giving false information to a grand jury that was investigating who paid for two of Cunningham’s properties.
Cunningham is serving an 8-year, 4-month prison sentence after he admitted taking $2.4 million in bribes in exchange for national defense contracts.
The investigation also included Mitchell Wade, the former owner of defense contractor MZM Inc., who pleaded guilty last February to bribing Cunningham and other charges.
According to the indictment, ADCS Inc. hired Wade’s company as a consultant to secure defense contracts.
In the other indictment, Wilkes is charged along with Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, a childhood friend and former executive director at the CIA.
The indictment alleges that Foggo illegally gave Wilkes classified information and took unreported money, trips and the promise of a future high-ranking position at ADCS in exchange for influencing intelligence agency contractors to give Wilkes money.
The indictment also alleges that the defendants tried to hide their personal relationship and “created and used shell companies and straw men to conceal defendant Wilkes’ financial interest and role in CIA contracts, and to launder money obtain from CIA contracts.”
In total, the second indictment includes 11 counts, including wire fraud and money laundering.
Prosecutors said that if convicted, 52-year-old Wilkes and co-conspirators face sentences in “the hundreds of months” and would be forced to pay more than $12 million in restitution.
Wilkes’ attorney, Los Angeles-based Mike Geragos, said that while he was disappointed in the indictment, his client welcomes the opportunity to confront the charges, which he added had been the source of “leaks and false accusations in the press.”
Wilkes’ as one of Cunningham’s alleged co-conspirators has been widely reported after the former congressman’s guilty plea.
“For 18 months [Wilkes has] been listening to all this not being able to combat it and respond to the false reports,” Geragos said. “At least now he will be in a forum where he will be vindicated.”
Lam, who held the news conference a day before her resignation, said the timing had nothing to do with her departure.
The investigation is ongoing, and at least one defendant in the indictments is not referred to by name.
Lam called the scope of the misdeeds alleged in the indictments “breathtaking.”
“These two indictments describe patterns of self-dealing and corruption that spanned years and reached deep into our country’s systems of procurement in the defense industry,” Lam said.