The man who once headed a military intelligence operation that U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode helped bring to Martinsville has pleaded guilty to making illegal campaign contributions to the congressman.

As part of an agreement reached Friday in U.S. District Court in Washington, Richard Berglund agreed to cooperate with federal authorities in an ongoing investigation.

At the time of his illegal donations, Berglund directed the Foreign Supplier Assessment Center in Martinsville, where defense contractor MZM Inc. researched the background of non-U.S. companies selling military equipment to the Pentagon.

Goode, who received more than $90,000 in campaign contributions linked to MZM, requested $3.6 million in federal funds for the Foreign Supplier Assessment Center and then worked with state officials to draw up a generous incentives package for MZM. The Rocky Mount Republican has said he did not know the campaign contributions were illegal.

Berglund is the second MZM official to be convicted of making illegal contributions to Goode.

In February, company president Mitchell Wade admitted to a larger role in a scheme to skirt a law that limited his contributions to $2,000 a candidate per election cycle. To get around the law while currying favor with Goode, Wade wrote checks to his employees and directed them to contribute to Goode's campaign, according to federal prosecutors.

Not only did Berglund get money from Wade that he funneled to Goode, he also gave two Martinsville MZM employees $2,000 each in cash and told them to write checks to Goode, court records state.

Both Berglund and Wade have agreed to cooperate in an ongoing investigation. Channing Phillips, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, declined to comment Monday on the nature of the investigation.

Last week, Rep. Katherine Harris -- a Florida Republican who along with Goode received illegal contributions from Wade -- confirmed that Justice Department officials have contacted her office and requested information related to the probe, Florida newspapers reported.

In a written statement in March, Goode said that "at no time have I or, to my knowledge, any member of my staff, been contacted by federal authorities investigating MZM."

"As far as I know, nothing has changed" since then, Goode spokesman Linwood Duncan said last week.

Goode has said he was just trying to bring jobs to his 5th Congressional District by dealing with MZM. He has donated to charity the $90,500 he received from the company's political action committee, its employees and their relatives.

Since MZM's troubles came to light, the company has been sold and its Martinsville operation is now run by Athena Innovative Solutions.

Berglund, who was the incoming chairman of the Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce before leaving the company and moving to Florida, will face up to one year in prison when he is sentenced Jan. 18. His attorney did not return a call Monday.