"Former Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham pledged to cooperate in the corruption investigation that brought him down but has not yet begun to talk with investigators and prosecutors.The 4th person is Kontogiannis' nephew in NY who owned the finance/mortgage company.
[snip]
On Nov. 28, Cunningham, a Republican, resigned the House seat he held for 15 years after admitting he accepted $2.4 million in bribes from two defense contractors and a New York businessman.
Those three, identified in court papers as "co-conspirators," have not been charged, nor has a fourth man who prosecutors said helped launder some of the bribes through his business.
[snip]
The plea agreement lists 52 "overt acts" as part of the conspiracy. Any of them could have been charged as an individual crime carrying a significant prison sentence, he said."
the Duke hasnt even started talking yet. I wonder who else we'll see in orange before et's all over...
Incidentally, I'm not sure which is the most stupid of the Duke's crimes - but surely accepting bribes (the sale of the boat) from a recently convicted briber ranks up there in the stupidity stakes.
actually, looking back over the duke's timeline, i was surprised to learn that the sale of the boat to Kontogiannis came after some of the Kontogiannis/financing shennanigans. In Dec 01, the Duke bought a condo in Arlington that was financed by Kontogiannis Junior. It wasnt until the end of 2002 when he 'sold' the boat?
But here's the rub, 14 months (Oct 2000) before the condo purchase, "Duke faxes a letter to the Queens District Attorney warning that Thomas Kontogiannis may be the victim of a disgruntled political agenda. A copy is sent to the House Judiciary Committee." Is it likely that the Duke was doing Konto favours gratis and it wasnt till 18 months later that Konto thought it wise to bribe him Duke in a series of rapidly escalating 'gifts' from cheap loans to a $400k bribe on the sale of the boat?
Actually I'm just reading through the indictment (pdf), and apparently the payments from Wade/Wilkes began in May 2000. So we know the Duke was already on the take when he first tried to help Konto, but the first sign of any payments wasnt till 14 months later. Was Duke simply late in claiming his payment? Were there other payments in the interim? Did Duke do any other favours in the interim?
Another possible problem for the Duke is that he made 50% profit on the property in 2 years - did he buy it cheap? The guy who sold the house to Duke found himself in some legal trouble - raiding pension funds and what-not.
And I still wonder where Elizbeth Todd fits into all of this...
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