Archive for the 'Feasting on the Spoils' Category

Brent “The Enigma” Wilkes Continues to Drain Taxpayers

October 25, 2011, by Seth Hettena. 0 Comments

Another Winning Hand for "The Enigma"

It’s been a long time since we heard from Brent “The Enigma” Wilkes. But the Enigma is back, baby!

Last week, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted Wilkes a new hearing in his case in San Diego federal court.

Wilkes, you may recall, was the sleazy defense contractor at the center of the Randy “Duke” Cunningham bribery trial. Cunningham steered defense contracts to Wilkes, who used the money to live high on the hog. He was poker buddies with Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, once the No. 3 guy at the CIA.

In 2008, Wilkes was convicted of bribing Cunningham with prostitutes and other goodies and sentenced to 12 years prison. By all rights, he should be there. But Wilkes, the master manipulator, continues to game the system.

The 9th Circuit allowed Wilkes to go free on bond pending his appeal. While Cunningham, Foggo and others do time, Wilkes runs around playing poker at San Diego casinos (where he goes by the nickname “The Enigma”). Meanwhile, his taxpayer-funded attorneys bombard federal prosecutors with reams of paper on his behalf. What a fucking waste.

Now it looks like the legal maneuvering by Team Enigma will drag into a fourth year. Your taxpayer dollars bought Wilkes more time because The Enigma’s lawyers argued successfully that the judge presided over Wilkes jury trial failed to read the minds of the judges 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The trial judge, Larry Burns, declined to grant immunity to one of the government’s witnesses that Wilkes wanted to call for his defense. According to the 9th Circuit, this was a no-no because Burns failed to apply the 9th Circuit’s holding in a separate, unrelated case that was decided after Burns made his ruling. Wow. Just wow.

All of Wilkes other arguments were brushed aside, including one that I found particularly interesting: Why was Cunningham never called to testify. According to prosecutors, “one of the reasons the Government did not call Cunningham at trial was because prosecutors did not trust him to refrain from fabricating testimony that he believed would help the prosecution (and thus enhance his chances for a reduced sentence).”

 

Duke to Judge: “You can only push a man so far, your honor”

September 7, 2010, by Seth Hettena. 1 Comment

The gigantic ego that is former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham has written an angry letter to his sentencing judge, complaining that the IRS is “killing” him and his family by seizing his remaining savings. Cunningham insists that as a highly decorated veteran, he deserves far better.

Read Duke’s Letter (.pdf)

Writing from his minimum security Arizona prison, Cunningham tells Judge Larry Burns that he never would have pleaded guilty to taking bribes from a defense contractor and evading taxes in 2005 had he known the IRS — which he refers to at one point as the “KGB IRS” — would “renig” (sic) on the agreement and “keep me in poverty for the rest of my life.”

The IRS has taken everything I have worked for during my nearly 70 years. They have taken over or we have paid over 2.75 million dollars in assets, cash homes, cars, earnings and retirement. After 40 years teaching, my wife is living hand to mouth & staying in her 2-bedroom grandmother’s home. You can only push a man so far your honor. As one of the most highly decorated veterans in the history see note of this nation and a lifetime of service yes I made mistakes but that does not include killing me and my family.

Judge Burns responded to Cunningham in a letter dated Aug. 4, explaining that the money confiscated from Cunningham’s retirement and congressional pension was seized by the IRS to collect back taxes owed on the bribes he received in 2003 and 2004.

Duke’s defense attorney, K. Lee Blalack, had no comment.

The IRS found that Cunningham owed more than $1.13 million in back taxes, penalties and interest. The IRS is collecting this in 686 installments of $1,647 seized from Cunningham’s congressional and navy retirement benefits, his Social Security check, and his savings account, which contained $84,423.64.

Cunningham must also pay an additional $1.8 million in restitution to the IRS.

In the letter, Duke also accuses prosecutors in San Diego of lying over the reasons why he was never called to testify at the 2007 trial of defense contractor Brent Wilkes, who was convicted regardless of bribing Cunningham with cash, luxury travel and prostitutes. Wilkes is out on bond and playing poker while he appeals his 12-year sentence.

Duke’s missive to the judge follows his unsuccessful effort earlier this year to have his 100 month sentenced reduced for the ”substantial assistance” he provided to the government. Defense lawyers say this assistance includes Duke’s willingness to phone to a co-conspirator, Thomas Kontogiannis, in calls that were recorded by the FBI and a willingness to testify at Wilkes’ trial.

In a July 28, 2008 letter to Blalack, U.S. Attorney Karen P. Hewitt acknowledged that Duke and his attorneys met repeatedly with federal authorities. Prosecutors say that they too did their best to extract substantial assistance from Cunningham. “Time and time again, however, he fell short of this goal,” prosecutors wrote.

Part of the problem was Cunningham’s inability to tell the truth without exaggerating, embellishing or minimizing his own conduct:

Moreover, Mr. Cunningham’s efforts were greatly tempered by the fact that many of our meetings with him were necessitated by his apparent retreat from the factual basis of his own plea agreement. See e.g., Letter to Wayne Winters, dated May 2, 2006, (“not all of what the press claimed was true or what I had to plead to — But [I] had to take the whole plea or nothing.”) At the opposite end of the spectrum, we were concerned that he would embellish facts if he thought doing so would improve his prospects for a sentencing reduction, as he did on at least one occasion…. In addition, his lack of candor before and after his plea (one example of which was the $50,000 in cash he left for his wife on the eve of his sentencing hearing) and the egregiousness of his crimes, presented the real risk that whichever side called him as a witness would be irreversibly tainted by such association. This may explain why Wilkes did not call him either, notwithstanding his counsel’s promise to do so.

Footnote:

Back to post This is yet another example of Cunningham’s well-known propensity to exaggerate his own accomplishments. He is NOT one of the most highly decorated veterans in U.S. history. He is not among the 3,446 recipients of the Medal of Honor, the highest award given for valor in combat. He received the Navy Cross, the second highest such honor.

Brent “The Enigma” Wilkes surfaces in attack ad

September 1, 2010, by Seth Hettena. 0 Comments

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.

PoliticMo.com has the story here:

“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.

The Enigma Impresses the Poker World

July 31, 2010, by Seth Hettena. 0 Comments
Brent "The Enigma" Wilkes

Poker writer Peter Sharkey is impressed by Brent “The Enigma” Wilkes’ power of concentration at the card table:

Brent Wilkes should exploit a gap in the market – for poker players’ benefit

Just how good are you at blanking everything out and concentrating fully upon your poker?

The level of concentration necessary to be successful is startling as you need to keep a constant eye on how play progresses and how individuals react to winning as well as to defeat. If you’re having problems away from the table and they begin to prey on your mind, it’s invariably curtains for your game.

Of course, there are short cuts to achieving a level of focus few other pursuits require. Switching on an mp3 player or donning those mirrored lens shades are two of the most popular – and effective, but there’s no substitute for heading to the felt with a clear mind.

So imagine you had been convicted for bribing a government official and received a 12-year prison sentence. That’s bad enough, but assume you’ve been free on bail for more than two years, pending an appeal against your sentence. Seems you would have your plate pretty full eh? And probably not much time to partake of a few hands of poker.

Not Mr Brent Wilkes, a 56 year-old former defence contractor who was convicted of conspiracy, bribery, money laundering and wire fraud in 2007. Mr Wilkes was freed from prison in February 2008 pending an appeal, which finally got under way on Monday.

Out on Bail, Brent “The Enigma” Wilkes Plays His Cards Right

July 27, 2010, by Seth Hettena. 1 Comment

Brent "The Enigma" Wilkes

A “58-year-old retiree” is how Ultimatepoker.com described Brent “the Enigma” Wilkes after he won $10,900 in a March No-Limit Hold-’em poker tournament at Harrah’s Rincon Casino.

Sporting his new chin strap, Wilkes is a self-described “former executive consultant who is now retired and is spending much of his time writing and playing poker,” Ultimatepoker.com tells us.

He’s also a former defense contractor who was convicted of bribing former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham with prostitutes, luxury vacations and other goodies.

Since he bailed out of prison while he appeals his conviction, The Enigma sure has been playing a lot of poker.

He made it to the finals at last year’s Rincon series, coming up just short of victory on each occasion.

Fans of the Randy “Duke” Cunningham scandal will recall that Wilkes was a life-long poker player. According to testimony at his trial, one of the ways Wilkes bribed Cunningham was by letting the old pilot win at poker.

Wilkes and his best friend, former CIA honcho Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, who’s now serving time in prison for fraud, hosted regular poker games at the Watergate Hotel that were the subject of much (mostly unfounded) speculation.

Brent Wilkes, Master of Delay

March 24, 2010, by Seth Hettena. 0 Comments

The appeal of Brent Wilkes, who was convicted in 2007 of bribing former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, has been delayed again.

The former defense contractor remains free on $2 million bail.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said earlier this month that it won’t hear the appeal until the U.S. Supreme Court issues its rulings in the appeals of former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling and former Rep. Bruce Weyrauch.

Those cases involve the crime of depriving the public of the right to “honest services,” the same law federal prosecutors in San Diego used against Wilkes.

Wilkes’s briefing papers now are due before the 9th Circuit about a month after the Supreme Court issues its rulings in Skilling and Weyrauch. The earlier deadline was today.

With more arguing back and forth and the average wait of a year for a ruling from the court, it will be a long time before Wilkes sees the inside of prison again.

It’s a pretty sweet deal for Wilkes, who is being represented by the federal public defender’s office in San Diego.

Cunningham is due to be released in 2013, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons website.

Amazingly, it’s looking increasingly likely that Duke may finish serving his sentence before Wilkes starts serving his.

Eric Massa’s San Diego ties

March 9, 2010, by Seth Hettena. 0 Comments

The strange saga of former Rep. Eric J.J. Massa, now reportedly under investigation for allegedly groping male staffers, is being closely followed in San Diego’s Navy community.

His father, Emiddio “Mead” Massa and his father-in-law, Adolf “Jake” Jacobsen, are retired Navy captains. Eric married Jacobsen’s daughter, Beverly.

Eric Massa graduated in 1981 from the U.S. Naval Academy. He retired in 2003 when he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

“Massa and his family moved to San Diego to be near his and Beverly’s parents, and he spent six months undergoing surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. They bought a one-story house because Massa had trouble walking up stairs,” Money magazine wrote in a 2006 profile.

Diagnosed as cancer-free, Massa decided to run for Congress in upstate New York. The couple sold the San Diego home and plowed the proceeds into Massa’s campaign, according to Money.

Former Rep. Charlie Wilson Dead at 76

February 10, 2010, by Seth Hettena. 0 Comments

First John Murtha. Now former Texas Rep. Charlie Wilson has died at 76.

The ethically-challenged Wilson was made famous by the excellent book by the late George Crile (and the movie) Charlie Wilson’s War, which revealed how he secretly supplied the funds for the CIA’s covert war in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

He appears a couple of times in my book, Feasting on the Spoils, most memorably in a a scene at a poker game at the Watergate Hotel. The Watergate was a home away from home for San Diego defense contractor Brent Wilkes and his CIA buddy, Kyle “Dusty” Foggo.

Wilkes and Foggo continued their long-standing tradition of weekly card games in Washington. Foggo would invite along friends from the CIA, and Wilkes would bring the congressmen. One of the congressional guests was Charlie Wilson, who had in 1993 received the CIA’s Honored Colleague Award, the first time it was ever awarded to anyone outside the agency. At one game, Wilson invited along his friend from Texas Joe Murray, a columnist for The Atlanta-Journal Constitution. Murray met Wilson in the hotel lobby. “I’m not sure how they chose the Watergate,” Murray wrote in a May 20, 1994 column, a few days after the poker game. “Perhaps because a sense of history. Either that or a sense of humor.”Murray followed Wilson into the suite, which was filled with cigar smoke. Wilson knew a few of the CIA personnel at the game. One was Brant Bassett, a well-regarded officer who spoke fluent Russian, German, and Hungarian. Bassett was known as Nine Fingers after a motorcycle accident had cost him a finger. Wilson brought gifts, a sack full of guns that included a Soviet automatic used by Russian paratroopers. Wilson had a special pen for everyone, one that with a click fired a .32-caliber bullet. Everyone in the room started clicking his pen.

“Boy, I wish I’d had it this afternoon,” someone said.

“If only Aldrich Ames were here.”

Murray and Wilson stayed only a short while, and as they were leaving, one of the agents offered Murry one of his cigars, a Dominican. Murray offered the agent one of his, a Cuban. The agent told him, “You know, of course, this is considered contraband. But you’ve done the right thing as a good citizen. You’ve turned it in to the proper authorities. Be assured that very shortly it will be destroyed by fire.”

Wilson insisted there was no hanky-panky the night he was there. “The only activities that took place there that would be considered illegal and unlawful was cigar smoking on a nonsmoking floor,” Wilson said. Cunningham was the only other congressman who ever attended the poker games, according to Wilkes.

The “hanky-panky” Wilson is referring to were the rumors that flew around Washington that congressmen were supplied with prostitutes at these games. The FBI never found any evidence of this (the government certainly would have used it against Wilkes if they had) but people still think it’s what happened anyway.

After my book came out, Wilkes’ nephew and right-hand man, Joel Combs, testified that Wilkes told his employees to lose to Duke at poker and he yelled at one man who wasn’t losing enough.

Wilkes was sentenced to 12 years for bribing Cunningham; Foggo is serving time in prison for steering CIA contracts to Wilkes.

As for Charlie Wilson, he didn’t remember Wilkes; Foggo, however, he remembered well when I interviewed him in 2006.

When I told Wilson that Foggo had a rather unsavory reputation, Wilson said that the CIA sometimes had need of people like that in the CIA to do the dirty work against the KGB. (Foggo was no James Bond, however; he was a logistics officer.)

Ah, well, I’m sorry Charlie is gone. He made Congress fun.

“King of Pork” John Murtha Dead at 77.

February 9, 2010, by Seth Hettena. 0 Comments

John Murtha, chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Committee who was considered one of the most corrupt members of Congress, died today.

The Defense Appropriations subcommittee is perhaps the most powerful in the House, funding not just the world’s biggest military, but the U.S. intelligence community as well.

President Obama signed the $636 billion 210 Defense appropriations bill into law in December. In it, Taxpayers for Common Sense counted 1,720 earmarks totalling $4.2 billion.

As chairman, Murtha cleaned up with 23 earmarks worth $76.5 billion.

With so much power and money flowing through it, the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee has become fertile ground for corruption on both sides of the aisle. One of its more infamous members was another Vietnam war hero like Murtha, Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Calif.

With Murtha gone, the lobbyists and defense contractors who fed at his trough for so many years are in mourning. At the top of that heap is lobbyist Paul Magliochetti, a former Murtha aide whose PMA Group was raided last year.

Johnstown, Pennsylvania will also need to find another sponsor for all the pet projects nurtured for years by Murtha, the representative since 1974. Things like the National Drug Intelligence Center. Or the John P. Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport. Or the Johnstown Flood National Memorial.

The FBI captured Murtha’s bare-knuckled performance on videotape in 1980 during an undercover sting aimed at exposing corrupt lawmakers. Murtha turned down 50,000 cash from the representative for a phony Arab sheikh, but not before adding, “After we’ve done some business, I might change my mind.”

Murtha was never charged with a crime, and in Congress, Speaker Tip O’Neill protected Murtha, as George Crile revealed in Charlie Wilson’s War. Wilson shut down the House Ethics Committee’s probe before a special prosecutor could move on Murtha.

When Murtha was in the running for majority leader in the fall of 2006, someone leaked a copy of the FBI videotape to The American Spectator. (See here.)

Mitch Wade lawyer nominated for US Atty

December 29, 2009, by Seth Hettena. 0 Comments

President Obama has nominated Ronald C. Machen Jr. to be U.S. Attorney in Washington DC.

Machen, 40, was part of the team at WilmerHale that defended defense contractor Mitchell Wade, briber of Randy “Duke” Cunningham.

Thanks to WilmerHale’s efforts, Wade is serving a 30-month sentence. That’s not bad, considering that Cunningham is serving more than eight years and Wade’s former boss and Cunningham briber, Brent Wilkes, is appealing his 12 year sentence.

Machen also represented another corrupt former congressman, Democrat William Jefferson and Christopher Ward, former National Republican Campaign Committee treasurer accused of stealing funds.

The U.S. Attorney is DC’s top law enforcement official, overseeing  the largest federal prosecutors office in the country.

Machen served as an Assistant US Attorney in the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, US Department of Justice, from 1997 to 2001.