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Wilkes, Foggo Indicted
SignOnSanDiego.com
By Kelly Thornton
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
February 13, 2007

SAN DIEGO – A federal grand jury on Tuesday issued indictments against Poway defense contractor Brent Wilkes and former high-ranking CIA official Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, childhood friends from San Diego who are entangled in the Randy "Duke" Cunningham congressional corruption scandal.

The U.S. Attorney's office wouldn't comment on the matter, but has scheduled a midday news conference. The two men are expected to surrender at an arraignment in federal court Wednesday or Thursday.

Sources have told The San Diego Union-Tribune that Wilkes and Foggo could be charged with fraud and conspiracy over a contract to supply bottled water to the CIA's operatives in Iraq.

Sources also said Wilkes could face additional charges in another indictment relating to his payments to Cunningham.

Foggo quit his post as No. 3 at the CIA after his office was raided by San Diego-based federal agents. He is expected to travel to San Diego from the East Coast to face charges.

Wilkes was a big contributor to Republican lawmakers who developed a series of businesses that specialized in landing federal contracts, with Poway-based ADCS, Inc. as his flagship.

ADCS received more than $100 million in government contracts between 1995 and 2005, partly with the help of Cunningham, who sat on the influential House Appropriations Committee.

In 2003, one of Wilkes' companies, Archer Logistics, a new company with no experience handling logistics, landed a multimillion-dollar CIA contract to supply water and first-aid supplies to operatives in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Foggo worked in the office that awarded the contract, the CIA's Frankfurt, Germany, office, where he was in charge of the procurement process for Europe and the Middle East.

Wilkes and Foggo have been friends for years, back to when they both attended Hilltop High School in Chula Vista and San Diego State University.

Cunningham, a Republican who represented much of San Diego's North County in Congress for 15 years, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion charges in November 2005 and was sentenced last March to eight years and four months in federal prison.

He is now in a minimum-security work camp in Tucson.

As part of his criminal case, Cunningham admitted accepting more than $2.4 million in bribes and, in exchange, routing contracts worth millions of contracts to businesses that were controlled by Wilkes and another businessman, Mitchell Wade.

Wade once worked for Wilkes, then became his business rival with a company that obtained more than $100 million in contracts while Wade was plying Cunningham with cash, trips and fine furniture, according to court records.

Wade has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and is awaiting his sentencing.

 Kelly Thornton: (619) 542-4571; kelly.thornton@uniontrib.com

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