Free on bond, Brent “The Enigma” Wilkes is spending time at the poker table these days, but his scandalous past is featured in a new attack ad in Missouri’s Senate race.
Wilkes is referred to in the ad by Missouri Democrat Robin Carnahan he “defense contractor convicted of bribery” who provided private jet trips for her GOP opponent, Rep. Roy Blunt, the former House whip.
“One of the examples we touch on in the ad is the example of Brent Wilkes, the California defense contractor and lobbyist,” said Mindy Mazur, campaign manager for Robin Carnahan, in a conference call with journalists Wednesday. “Blunt – while he was there – helped whip the vote in favor of one of his companies.”
Mazur says, “Eight days later, Congressman Blunt received $14,000 from people associated with Brent Wilkes.”
While she says “he spent over 100,000 in legal fees related to the Wilkes case,” Mazur wasn’t sure if he had actually done anything illegal. “I would have to say the more we’ve learned about what congressman blunt’s been up to in washington, the more we’ve asked the same question [of legality].”
Wilkes was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2008 following his conviction on charges of bribery, money laundering and fraud. He was freed while his case is being appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
I’ve posted some court documents relating to a bribery investigation that involves some big names in the private equity world:
CalPERS, the giant California pension;
Leon Black’s Apollo Group
Christopher Bower’s Pacific Corporate Group in La Jolla
Gerry Parsky’s Aurora Capital Group.
Some background: California Attorney General Jerry Brown’s office in May sued former CalPERS CEO Federico Buenrostro Jr and placement agent and former Calpers board member Alfred Villalobos with fraudulent broker-dealer activities involving $4.8 billion in investments at the fund. (Read the lawsuit here.)
According to the lawsuit, Villalobos earned $47… Continue reading
The Houston Chronicle is out with a profile of San Diego attorney Michael Attanasio who’s joining former pitcher Roger Clemens’ defense team.
Padres general manager Kevin Towers tells the Chronicle he “couldn’t be happier” for both Attanasio and Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young award winner who pleaded not guilty today to lying to Congress when he testified in 2008 that he never used performance-enhancing drugs. Attanasio helped the Padres GM through the Mitchell Commission’s investigation of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball.
On July 26th, I broke the news on this blog that former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino had joined the team of lobbyists working for a secretive defense contractor that is at the center of a congressional investigation of a $1.4 billion contract to supply aviation fuel at the U.S. air base in Kyrgyzstan.
A $1.8 million yacht purchased in Chula Vista figures in a U.S. bribery investigation of a senior official at Mexico’s state-run national electric utility.
The Mexican official, Nestor Moreno, received the yacht sold by the now-defunct South Shore Yacht Sales in Chula Vista.
South Shore Yacht Sales was registered to a Robin Goodman. County records show the business racked up tax liens in 2006 and 2008. An absentee judgement was recorded against Goodman and South Shore last year.
In addition to the yacht, Moreno allegedly received a $300,000 Ferrari Spider, and perhaps millions of dollars in cash… Continue reading
Did former chairman and chief executive Carly Fiorina play a role in the spying scandal that tarnished the once sterling reputation of Hewlett-Packard Corporation?
Revelations in 2006 that company investigators, using private and confidential information provided by HP, had posed as board members and journalists to obtain private phone records and e-mails created a public uproar. HP officials were hauled before Congress and California filed criminal charges against several company officials, including former Chairman Patricia Dunn.
Pacific Western Bank of San Diego is picking up 11 new California branches north of LA and $770 million in fresh deposits following the failure of Los Padres Bank in Solvang, California.
As part of the deal, Pacific Western Bank has agreed to purchase essentially all of Los Padres’ assets (loans) of $870.4 million. The FDIC will assume up to 80 percent of the losses on most of Los Padres’ bad mortgages and commercial loans.
Also included in the acquisition was the Harrington Wealth Management subsidiary of Los Padres Bank, headquartered in Fishers, Indiana, which provides trust… Continue reading
I’ll be on Investoradio this Saturday, Aug. 21, talking about Ray Lucia and high fees. You can listen online through this link. Just like Lucia, Investoradio hosts Tom Cock and Don McDonald run their own investment advisory, but their fees are less than 1 percent, compared to as much as 2.9 percent for RJL Wealth Management.
The paper that lands on your doorstep tomorrow will be a “bit” narrower, according to Publisher Moss, who assures us it will also be “more efficient” — newspaper doublespeak for less wordy. Continue reading
The seminars are free to attend, but they’re not free. Someone is paying for them. If you’re considering investing with Lucia, it’s important to understand that the person who may wind up paying is you. Continue reading
Seth Hettena is a freelance writer and author based in San Diego, California. Click for more
A former reporter and correspondent for The Associated Press, Hettena has exposed the torture death of an Iraqi prisoner in CIA custody. He has also discovered photos posted on the Internet of Navy SEALs treating prisoners harshly and revealed that a secret Navy office contracted planes that were used in the CIA’s rendition program.
Hettena grew up in New York, attended The Fieldston School and spent his summers in high school working on oil tankers and coal carriers running to Panama, Alaska and the Netherlands.
He is a graduate of The Johns Hopkins University and holds a Master’s Degree in journalism from Columbia University in 1994. Before joining the AP in 1997, he worked for two Iowa newspapers.
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