AP: Defense contractor heads to trial, accused of bribing congressman
Posted by: Jeff Flint | 09/30/2007 11:18 AM
From the AP, via the San Jose Mercury News:
Defense contractor Brent Wilkes hosted fancy dinner parties and chartered jets for powerful members of Congress as his company racked up more than $100 million in government contracts.
The lawmakers who enjoyed the largesse were often the same ones who approved his contracts. They included former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who pleaded guilty in 2005 to accepting $2.4 million in kickbacks in the largest corruption scandal ever to strike Congress.
Wilkes goes on trial Wednesday to fight charges that he funneled more than $700,000 in bribes to the San Diego Republican in cash and perks ranging from a Sea-Doo jet boat to private jet flights with filet-mignon dinners to the services of two prostitutes at a high-end Hawaiian resort.
...
Wilkes gave about $46,000 in campaign contributions to Rep. John Doolittle, R-Rocklin, a former member of the House Appropriations Committee who has acknowledged helping Wilkes win $37 million in contracts. Wilkes contributed about $60,000 to former Appropriations Committee chair Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-San Bernardino, with whom he once went scuba-diving in Belize.
Wilkes has not been implicated in those investigations, and no charges have been filed against Doolittle or Lewis.
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