Businessman's contacts examined

SAN DIEGO — The scandal that brought down former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham didn't end when the Vietnam War hero began serving an eight-year sentence in federal prison for taking millions of dollars in bribes.

Since Cunningham, R-Calif., was sentenced in March, the case has turned into a sprawling federal investigation with all the soap-opera elements: money, power and sex. One of Washington, D.C.'s most notorious landmarks — the Watergate Hotel — even has a role in it.

The investigation has many wondering where it will go next after a week in which the name of Rep. Jerry Lewis, chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, surfaced and the home of the outgoing executive director of the CIA was searched.

The link in all these strands isn't Cunningham, who pleaded guilty to accepting $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors. It's San Diego businessman Brent Wilkes, described in Cunningham's plea agreement as an unindicted co-conspirator.

Prosecutors allege Wilkes paid Cunningham, a former member of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, more than $626,000 in bribes between 2000 and 2004 to win government contracts for his companies. Wilkes' links to other lawmakers, lobbyists and government officials have expanded the case substantially.

"It's all about Wilkes paying people to get contracts," said Melanie Sloan, a former federal prosecutor in Washington and executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "Anybody who Brent Wilkes has been making substantial contributions to, they're going to be looking at. They'd have to."

Wilkes' attorneys have said he has done nothing illegal. His lawyers, Nancy Luque and Michael Lipman, did not return a phone message seeking comment.

On Friday, FBI agents raided the Virginia rental home and the offices of Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, the No. 3 CIA official who oversaw the spy agency's day-to-day operations. Foggo had announced Monday that he would resign.

The Foggo search warrants were obtained by the federal prosecutors in San Diego who caught Cunningham, assistant U.S. Attorney Phil Halpern said.

Earlier in the week, Lewis, R-Calif., denied any wrongdoing after it was disclosed that prosecutors opened an investigation into his dealings with Bill Lowery, a former congressman from San Diego who served with him on the Appropriations Committee before leaving Congress in 1993. Now a lobbyist, Lowery's clients included ADCS, a San Diego defense-contracting firm founded by Wilkes.

Foggo's ties to Wilkes go back to childhood. The two grew up together in the San Diego suburb of Chula Vista, played on the same high-school football team and roomed together at San Diego State University. The men are so close they each named a son after the other.

A federal task force based in San Diego is investigating whether Foggo improperly intervened in awarding a company connected to Wilkes a contract to supply bottled water to CIA agents in Iraq.

Foggo's defense attorney, William Hundley, did not return a message seeking comment.

Investigators also have contacted two Washington, D.C.-based escort services to determine whether Wilkes supplied Cunningham and potentially other lawmakers with prostitutes, reportedly at the Watergate Hotel and, later, at the Westin Grand.

The allegations involving prostitutes were raised by defense contractor Mitchell Wade, who pleaded guilty to paying Cunningham more than $1 million in bribes. Wilkes also hosted poker parties for CIA personnel at the hotels.

Foggo has acknowledged participating in poker games organized by Wilkes at the hotels, but the CIA said Foggo insisted they were card games "and nothing more." Lawyers for Wilkes also have denied there was any involvement with prostitutes.

Randall Eliason, former head of the public-corruption section of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, said it looks as if investigators are casting a wide net.

"It looks like they're going to explore all of Wilkes' contacts and sort of follow where it leads," he said. "Whether that means other members of Congress will be indicted, it's almost impossible to say from the outside."