Contractor spends big on key
lawmakers
Yahoo News/USA Today
Matt Kelley and Jim Drinkard,
November 30, 2005
A San Diego businessman under investigation in the bribery case of former
congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham is a well-known GOP fundraiser whose
generosity to key members of Congress came at the same time his company saw
large increases in its government contracts, public records show.
Brent Wilkes, the founder of defense contractor ADCS Inc., gave more than
$840,000 in contributions to 32 House members or candidates, campaign-finance
records show. He flew Republican lawmakers on his private jet and hired
lobbyists with close ties to those lawmakers.
Wilkes' charitable foundation, which aids sick children and military
families, honored congressmen at black-tie banquets and donated to their
favorite causes. Wilkes was also a "Pioneer" for President Bush's 2004
re-election campaign, meaning he raised at least $100,000.
With help from two committee chairmen, ADCS got more than $90 million in
government contracts since its founding in 1995, helping propel Wilkes from an
obscure businessman to a millionaire prominent in Republican circles.
Neither Wilkes nor any other congressmen have been charged with crimes, and
the donations and contributions are legal so long as they weren't intended to
influence official actions. The links illustrate the connections between
lawmakers who oversee defense spending and a contractor seeking some of that
money.
Cunningham resigned Monday after pleading guilty to tax evasion and
conspiracy to accept bribes. He admitted accepting $2.4 million in bribes from
two defense contractors and two other businessmen in exchange for helping those
companies get contracts.
Wilkes, whose home and company headquarters were searched by federal agents
this year during the Cunningham investigation, wasn't named in the plea
documents. The documents say "co-conspirator No. 1" spent more than $636,000 on
Cunningham. Wilkes' attorney, Michael Lipman, acknowledged that his client is
"co-conspirator No. 1." He declined to comment further about the case.
Contributions to chairmen
Since 1994, Wilkes and ADCS gave $40,700 in campaign contributions to Rep.
Duncan Hunter (news, bio, voting record), a San Diego Republican who now chairs
the House Armed Services Committee. Hunter has acknowledged that he joined with
Cunningham in 1999 to contact Pentagon officials who reversed a decision and
gave ADCS one of its first big contracts, for nearly $10 million. Hunter's
spokesman, Joe Kasper, said the congressman was unavailable for comment
Tuesday.
Another California Republican, Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry
Lewis, led panels that ordered the Pentagon to continue programs that aided
ADCS when Pentagon officials wanted to cut them. Lewis got $71,253 from Wilkes
and his employees in donations since 1993. Wilkes gave Lewis donations and met
him at various events, Lewis spokesman Jim Specht said, but "he never talked
with him about a defense project."
Before becoming the Appropriations chairman this year, Lewis led the
subcommittee that oversees defense spending. In the late 1990s, that panel
directed the Pentagon to continue converting paper documents to computer
records, the work that ADCS does. Pentagon officials had tried to end the
program's funding.
The 1999 defense budget, for example, directed $45 million be spent on
document conversion. Wilkes and his employees gave Lewis $7,000 in campaign
contributions the day after his subcommittee's first hearing on the bill.
After the Pentagon declined to give ADCS a contract, it awarded the company
a $9.8 million deal in mid-1999 after "inquiries from two members of Congress,"
a Defense investigation found. Hunter and Cunningham have said they asked
Pentagon officials about the program.
The money went to ADCS instead of projects for the Army's UH-60 Black Hawk
helicopter, Air Force bases, and a parts center in Oklahoma, according to the
report by the Pentagon inspector general, prompted by a request from a Defense
official.
Valuable in-the-air time
Wilkes' ties to Hunter and Cunningham go beyond campaign contributions. In
2003, the businessman's foundation hosted a "Salute to Heroes" gala to give
Hunter an award, just as it did for Cunningham a year earlier. The Wilkes
Foundation gave $1,000 in 2003 to a charity run by two of Hunter's staffers,
records show.
Wilkes also provided a jet that Cunningham and other Republicans used for
more than a dozen flights to campaign fundraising events since 2001, records
show.
Providing flights gives donors a chance for hours of one-on-one contact with
the lawmaker they want to influence, said Keith Ashdown of the watchdog group
Taxpayers for Common Sense.
"Most other lobbyists would give up their second lung to get that kind of
access," Ashdown said. "It's not always illegal, but it's definitely a strategy
of influence that's unparalleled."
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