Friday, February 24, 2006
Former MZM head pleads guilty to bribery, election fraud
Defense contractor linked to $90,000 in contributions to U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode.
The former head of a defense contracting company linked to more than $90,000 in campaign contributions to U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode pleaded guilty today to giving cash and illegal contributions to three members of Congress.
Mitchell Wade, who resigned last year as chief executive officer of MZM Inc., admitted in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., that he bribed Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham of California in exchange for government business being steered his way.
For the first time, authorities also disclosed that Wade made illegal contributions to two other lawmakers — identified in court documents only as "Representative A" and "Representative B."
Language in the court records about Representative A bears a striking resemblance to Goode, R-Rocky Mount, who received more than $90,000 in campaign contributions from MZM’s political action committee, its employees and their spouses. Taken together, the MZM-linked donors represented Goode’s largest campaign contributor.
Wade targeted Representative A because he knew the congressman had the ability to request appropriations for a second MZM facility in his district, according to court documents unsealed today.
Goode, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, has said he requested funding for a Foreign Supplier Assessment Center in Martinsville, which became the second MZM facility to open in his Fifth District. Court records also say "Representative A" wanted the facility to go to an economically depressed area in the District.
The court documents also list a number of contributions to Representative A from MZM employees that correspond to the dates and amounts listed in Goode’s campaign finance reports to the Federal Election Commission.
In court today, Wade admitted that he circumvented laws that limited his contributions to $2,000 per election cycle by paying his employees to make contributions to the two unnamed members of Congress.
"I was shocked and amazed to learn the details of the plea agreement concerning former MZM CEO Mitch Wade, " Goode said in a statement today. "I had no knowledge that any of the contributions by MZM persons to our campaign were illegal.”





