to taking $2.4 million in bribes

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/28/congressman.shouse.ap/index.html

Quote :

"[...] In a statement, prosecutors said Cunningham admitted to receiving at least $2.4 million in bribes paid to him by several conspirators through a variety of methods, including checks totaling over $1 million, cash, rugs, antiques, furniture, yacht club fees and vacations. "He did the worst thing an elected official can do -- he enriched himself through his position and violated the trust of those who put him there," U.S. Attorney Carol Lam said. The statement did not identify the conspirators. The case began when authorities started investigating whether Cunningham and his wife, Nancy, used the proceeds from the $1,675,000 sale to defense contractor Mitchell Wade to buy a $2.55 million mansion in ritzy Rancho Santa Fe. Wade put the Del Mar house back on the market and sold it after nearly a year for $975,000 -- a loss of $700,000. He drew little notice outside his San Diego-area district before the San Diego Union-Tribune reported last June that he'd sold the home to Wade. Cunningham's pleas came amid a series of GOP scandals. Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas had to step down as majority leader after he was indicted in a campaign finance case; a stock sale by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is being looked at by regulators; and Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff was indicted in the CIA leak case."

The GOP is doing down!!1

11/28/2005 2:39:54 PM

ouch. add him to list

frist, libby, rove, delay ect...

[Edited on November 28, 2005 at 2:54 PM. Reason : 0]

11/28/2005 2:53:05 PM

Small potatoes.

Abramoff's where it's at.

11/28/2005 2:57:15 PM

Well there's a thread for that, too.

11/28/2005 2:59:20 PM

Quote :

"Real men don't cry - ever. fucking pussy."

GGMon

Quote :

"(San Diego -AP, November 28, 2005) - Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy and tax charges and tearfully resigned from office, admitting he took $2.4 million in bribes to steer defense contracts to conspirators. Cunningham, 63, entered pleas in U.S. District Court to charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud and wire fraud, and tax evasion for underreporting his income in 2004. Cunningham answered "yes, Your Honor" when asked by U.S. District Judge Larry Burns if he had accepted bribes from someone in exchange for his performance of official duties. Later, at a news conference, he wiped away tears as he announced his resignation. "I can't undo what I have done but I can atone," he said. Cunningham, an eight-term Republican congressman, had already announced in July that he would not seek re-election next year. House Ethics rules say that any lawmaker convicted of a felony no longer should vote or participate in committee work. Under Republican caucus rules, Cunningham also would have lost his chairmanship of the House Intelligence subcommittee on terrorism and human intelligence. "

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=nation_world&id=3674807

[Edited on November 28, 2005 at 3:19 PM. Reason : Lots of Republicans will be weeping in '06]

11/28/2005 3:19:02 PM

like hes the first politician to take a bribe.

11/28/2005 3:22:12 PM

which makes it right, if you guys don't already know.

11/28/2005 4:02:27 PM

oic

11/28/2005 4:05:11 PM

stupid liberals trying to string a guy up for getting a good deal on his house

11/28/2005 6:03:08 PM

You'd think he was selling real estate in Arkansas or somethin'

11/28/2005 7:24:37 PM

He should be hung from the highest tree, along with those who paid the bribes.

11/28/2005 7:42:08 PM

Quote :

"Small potatoes. Abramoff's where it's at."

11/28/2005 7:49:41 PM

Quote :

"like hes the first politician to take a bribe."

Yeah, best we just make it legal and save ourselves the trouble...

11/29/2005 2:56:17 AM

Quote :

"JonHGuth: stupid liberals trying to string a guy up for getting a good deal on his house"

I lol'd...

11/29/2005 11:27:40 AM

^^

I can just see people saying "like he's the first person to kill someone! give 'im a break"

11/29/2005 11:33:00 AM

Where's aaronburro, ggmon, the big girl, and wolfpacketc?

WHO WILL DEFEND THIS INNOCENT MAN?!?

11/29/2005 11:47:33 AM

ALL THE MAN DID WAS SELL A HOUSE FOR LIKE 3X ITS VALUE
WHICH THE BUYER THEN TURNED AROUND AND SOLD AT A 65% LOSS

WHAT IS SO IMMORAL ABOUT THAT?

11/29/2005 11:55:48 AM

Quote :

"Duke Cunningham is a hero,” DeLay said during a press briefing Tuesday. “He is an honorable man of high integrity."

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/061505/delay.html
- tom delay

11/29/2005 11:59:24 AM

^Didn't you know? He was Tom DeLay's inspirtation.

11/29/2005 2:16:06 PM

THIS MUST BE THE UPPER LEFT CORNER OF THE TWW RED SQUARE

11/29/2005 6:07:22 PM

hahaha

11/30/2005 11:20:29 AM

Quote :

"The third alleged co-conspirator in the Cunningham plea agreement, Thomas T. Kontogiannis, a Long Island–based, Greek-born financier and real-estate developer, was picked up in Athens by the private plane flying Cunningham and Calvert to Saudi Arabia in December 2004. Accompanying the group — and paying for the trip — was Ziyad S. Abduljawad, a naturalized American of Saudi origin living in San Diego. Calvert's press spokesman told the Prospect that no staff members went on the trip, during which the congressmen met with "the former Crown Prince, who is now King," as well as several other Saudi ministers and business leaders. "The purpose [of their trip] was to improve relationships between Saudi Arabia and the U.S.," explained Calvert's spokesman in an e-mail. Such a broad-minded purpose is notable coming from Cunningham, who launched his political career in 1990 by outraging local Arab Americans "with a brochure bearing the picture of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi that accused his Egyptian-born opponent of having been influenced by oil interests," as reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune. As for Kontogiannis, he previously pled guilty to bid rigging in a 2002 case involving a Queens, New York, school district. The New York Post reported that in 1994 Kontogiannis pled guilty to visa fraud, after he and an official from the U.S. embassy in Athens were arrested. His wife's nephew, John T. Michael, is described as co-conspirator number four in the Cunningham plea agreement. Michael officially heads the mortgage company, Coastal Capital Corporation, used to launder the bribes to Cunningham by Wilkes and Wade. What does all this unappetizing detail mean? It is clear that companies belonging to Wilkes and Wade received a few hundred million dollars in sensitive defense and intelligence contracts. Who is investigating whether such companies should be performing such controversial tasks as conducting domestic surveillance on peace groups for the Defense Department? Who is investigating whether MZM and its successor Athena Innovative Solutions should be evaluating which foreign companies supply weapons to the Pentagon — when MZM may have gotten the initial contract through dubious means? A close reading of the 33-page Cunningham plea agreement raises troubling questions about the relationships that connect Wilkes, Wade, Kontogiannis, and those whom the Cunningham plea agreement describes as "others." The indictment describes multiple instances when Wilkes and Wade used companies owned by Kontogiannis and his wife's nephew essentially as the banking vehicles to launder bribes to Cunningham through the purchase of real estate, boats, and other valuables. In other words, Wilkes and Wade would seem to have had some degree of knowledge of Kontogiannis being central to the corruption scheme. While we know how companies belonging to Wilkes and Wade benefited from their bribes to Cunningham — with several hundred millions of dollars in sensitive U.S. government contracts — it is still opaque what precisely Kontogiannis got out of the Cunningham arrangement. One is left to wonder what other interests Kontogiannis may have been representing, interests which could have benefited from his favors to Cunningham in ways that have not yet been revealed. In short, who is investigating the counterintelligence implications of this case to protect against potential breaches of U.S. national security?"

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/13/opinion/main1209463.shtml

1/14/2006 7:58:13 PM

i blame cheese

1/18/2006 4:16:33 PM