Capitol Crooks
It started with the bribery indictment of California Rep. Randall "Duke" Cunningham, but before it's over, a sprawling investigation into a Pentagon contractor called MZM could snare some of Washington's most powerful inside players
"Somebody." In November 2001, just weeks after his father's death, Wade took Cunningham shopping. The two men went on quite a spree, picking out antique nightstands, a leaded glass cabinet, a buffet, four armoires. When Wade went to pay the $12,000 tab, federal prosecutors say, Cunningham "wandered to a different area of the store." Afterward, Cunningham "expressed his appreciation" for Wade's "willingness to bribe him," prosecutors say, and told Wade he would make him a "somebody." Wade's business records show that, with what prosecutors called the "green light" from Cunningham, the value of MZM's government contracts soared, from "less than a million dollars per year, to tens of millions per year."
According to U.S. Attorney Kenneth Wainstein in Washington, who is leading the MZM investigation, Wade admitted pressuring MZM executives to make campaign contributions. He also got 19 MZM employees or their spouses to make 39 different contributions in their names, which he then reimbursed-in violation of federal election laws. Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode, a Republican, received $46,000 in such "straw contributions," and Florida Rep. Katherine Harris, also a Republican, got $32,000. Wade, who didn't tell the lawmakers he was reimbursing his employees, asked them for favorable consideration of several defense projects, prosecutors say. Wade had other Republican lawmakers in his sights, as well. He tried to cultivate Mississippi's Trent Lott, then the Senate majority leader, by sending him expensive seven-fold ties, and North Carolina's Elizabeth Dole, by proffering a marble bust. Both declined the gifts.
In all, Wade gave nearly $305,000 in campaign contributions-98 percent of it to Republicans. "It's a reflection," says Sheila Krumholz, acting executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, "of the connections MZM had built." Compared with what major corporations give to candidates, MZM's contributions were relatively minor. But the money was so finely targeted that it resulted in a bonanza for MZM.
And the success was evident in nearly every corner of MZM's elegant "World Headquarters," a historic five-story Victorian brownstone in Washington's artsy Dupont Circle neighborhood. In the building's elegant entry foyer, a gleaming Steinway baby grand piano greeted visitors. A vanity wall hung with photograph after photograph showed Wade doing the grip 'n' grin with cabinet secretaries and members of Congress, including, of course, Cunningham. Upstairs, Wade had his own oval office, the floors covered with antique Persian rugs. The office boasted hand-carved, century-old pieces, including a beautifully stained desk, heavy armoires, servers, and credenzas with fluted Corinthian detailing. Light streaming in through big bay windows caressed the handsome oil paintings of clipper ships.
"Scripts." Because of his seat on two key committees, defense appropriations and intelligence, Cunningham, Wade knew, could "make or break MZM," said prosecutor Wainstein, so he showered the lawmaker with gifts. January 2002 saw the delivery of a leather sofa and sleigh bed ($6,632); February brought two antique Louis Philippe and Restoration period commodes ($7,200). April was a big month. There was the $13,500 to be used toward the purchase of a 1973 blue Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, and an additional nearly $18,000 for servicing the vehicle. (Cunningham would later "sell" the Rolls back to Wade, but he never transferred real ownership, prosecutors said.)
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