House Investigating MZM Contact, Link to Cunningham(& perhaps Cheney)

[maddezmom]

Source: KFMB

The White House has handed over documents to a House committee investigating a contract awarded to MZM, the company headed by a defense contractor linked to Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

The contract is at the center of an ongoing investigation into waste, fraud, and abuse in government contracting.

At issue is a $140,000 contract given to MZM in 2002 by the Executive Office of the President that committee chairman Henry Waxman says contains serious irregularities.



Read more: http://www.cbs8.com/stories/story.88123.html

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earlier link:
White House gives House committee documents on MZM contract
The White House has turned over to a House committee approximately 200 pages of documents related to a contract awarded to MZM Inc., a company that was run by a defense contractor who pleaded guilty to bribing jailed GOP ex-Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

~snip~

At issue was a $140,000 contract awarded to MZM in July 2002 by the Executive Office of the President. When he requested information about the contract in March, Waxman noted "serious irregularities" with other MZM work and said his inquiry was part of his ongoing investigation into waste, fraud and abuse in government contracting.


~snip~


Waxman noted in a letter to the White House counsel this month that published reports said the MZM contract was for office furniture for the vice president's office.

However, Waxman wrote in the letter that his staff had heard from an official in the counsel's office who "stated that he had been unable to identify any contracts for furniture within the vice president's office, but that he had heard 'rumors' about a different contract 'related to WMD' that raised 'certain sensibilities.'"


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=277520&mesg_id=277520

[sueh]

1. K & R

[maddezmom]

2. more from Laura Rozen

New questions arise concerning Mitchell Wade's first White House contract -- and his connections to the vice president.
By Laura Rozen
Web Exclusive: 03.30.07

Print Friendly | Email Article

From 1991 to 1993, a young lieutenant commander in the Navy Reserve was working as a program manager in a Pentagon intelligence office. His name was Mitchell John Wade. His boss, the assistant secretary of defense for command, control, communications and intelligence, was Duane P. Andrews. Andrews's job at the Pentagon was essentially to serve as intelligence advisor to the secretary of defense. The secretary of defense at the time was someone that Andrews knew well and respected immensely: Dick Cheney.

Back during the Reagan administration, Andrews had served as a professional staff member to the House Intelligence Committee, of which Cheney, then a Wyoming Republican congressman, was a prominent member. In a recent interview with a federal technology magazine, Andrews lists Cheney as his personal, lifelong hero.

In 1993, at the end of George H.W. Bush's presidency, Cheney went on to become CEO of the oil services giant Halliburton; Andrews joined the massive government contractor SAIC, where he would rise to become CIO; and Wade, then 40 years old, moved to form his own defense contracting firm, MZM, Inc. But it wasn't until 2002 that MZM would get its first federal government contract: a peculiar one-month, $140,000 contract from the White House, later revealed to be for providing computers, office furniture, and specialized computer programming services to the Office of the Vice President.

Wade's company would later get three more contracts from the White House and tens of millions of dollars in contracts from the Defense Department and other federal agencies, many of them for classified intelligence work. In the summer of 2005, of course, it all began to unravel for MZM, after journalist Marcus Stern of the San Diego Union Tribune/Copley News service noticed that San Diego congressman Duke Cunningham had sold his house to a company that listed as its name a Washington, D.C. street address, 1523 New Hampshire Ave. This was the address of MZM. After an extensive investigation that led to a sprawling federal probe run out of the San Diego U.S. attorney's office (the now-fired Carol Lam), Wade pled guilty last year and is awaiting sentencing on charges related to bribing Cunningham, who himself pled guilty on bribery-related charges and is serving out an eight year prison sentence. In February, three more indictments were issued in the case, this time against a San Diego-based defense contractor and Bush/Cheney Pioneer with whom Wade had closely worked, Brent Wilkes; Wilkes's longtime friend-turned-CIA executive director Kyle Dustin Foggo, who is accused of steering Wilkes CIA contracts and has since resigned; and the nephew of a Greek American businessman who is accused of laundering some of Wilkes's and Wade's bribes to Cunningham through his mortgage company.

more:http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=12612

[jaybeat]

3. And didn't the $140K match the price of a boat?

That Wade purchased 2 days later for, yup, Cunningham himself??!!!

[Canuckistanian]

4. Not even subtle

Even some guy at the marina who they boat the boat from thought it was suspicious.

Another bizarre circumstance: For a modest $140,000, I learn from the Federal Procurement Data System, MZM was hired to provide computer programming for the Executive Office of the President—a remarkable coup for Wade. One month later he paid exactly $140,000 for the Duke-Stir, which was moved to Cunningham's boatslip. "I knew then that somebody was going to go to jail for that," says a party to the sale. "Duke looked at the boat, and Wade bought it—all in one day. Then they got on the boat and floated away."

http://www.commongroundcommonsense.org/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t58811.html

[youngdem]

7. Yup. In fact, the man who sold the boat said at the time

– Wade’s company MZM Inc. received its first federal contract from the White House. The contract, which ran from July 15 to August 15, 2002, stipulated that Wade be paid $140,000 to “provide office furniture and computers for Vice President Dick Cheney.”

– Two weeks later, on August 30, 2002, Wade purchased a yacht for $140,000 for Duke Cunningham. The boat’s name was later changed to the “Duke-Stir.” Said one party to the sale: “I knew then that somebody was going to go to jail for that…Duke looked at the boat, and Wade bought it — all in one day. Then they got on the boat and floated away.”


http://thinkprogress.org/2007/03/19/carol-lam-white-house/

[Canuckistanian]

5. This sleazy little deal might do damage to Cheney, big time

It's easy to follow and the money trail is short.

[donkeyotay]

6. Drag these mofos out into the light of day.

However, Waxman wrote in the letter that his staff had heard from an official in the counsel's office who "stated that he had been unable to identify any contracts for furniture within the vice president's office, but that he had heard 'rumors' about a different contract 'related to WMD' that raised 'certain sensibilities.'"

[burrowowl]

8. Interesting!

Impeach Cheney and Bu$Co and then try and convist them and send then to jail for LIFE!