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Certainly this has been noted before, but Mitchell Wade's MZM, Inc. became one of the top 100 federal contractors in DC -- in a town of federal contractors -- according to Washingtonian, before its head got exposed as having got there through allegedly criminal means. Its 2004 estimated revenue of over $66 million put it in the big leagues. That is a lot of contracts, even by federal pork standards. Have we established everything that MZM was doing for the government? (Well -- no; because Wade, who came from a Navy intelligence background, dealt in non-public contracts, far more than his alleged co-conspirator Brent Willkes). And it's worth noting that Wade, who worked for a time as a consultant to Wilkes' ADCS, Inc., was reportedly on poor terms with Wilkes long before they were exposed as allegedly bribing Congressman Duke Cunningham. Apparently Wilkes resented that Wade mastered his methods for cultivating those congressmen and others who could steer contracts to him to a degree that Wade started taking business from Wilkes.
Have heard that US government personnel at the Army's National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) in Charlottesville didn't think too highly of MZM, which got a huge contract there after hiring the son of the NGIC's executive director (according to this July Walter Pincus report). Would be interested to understand more about this. MZM's defunct website says the company has major offices in DC, Charlottesville (the NGIC), Martinsville, VA ("the Foreign Supplier Assessment Center"), Tampa (sounds like SOCOM), South Korea and Iraq. What was/is it doing in South Korea? And Iraq? ("...$5 million sole source contract to provide interpreters in Iraq," according to the San Diego Union-Trib). What's it doing in Tampa for that matter? MZM appears to have been renamed Athena Innovative Solutions. (Here's Athena's client list). Has it managed to get recommended for new contracts in the current appropriations bill headed to the president? Here's some information on who rescued them. (Veritas Capital, the investment firm that bought selected assets of MZM, appears to be a major investor in DynCorp).
And should a company whose founding leader was involved in bribing congressman to get Top Secret contracts really have such a large role in evaluating foreign suppliers? Is a firm with such clear ethical improprieties really who should be in charge of vetting foreign suppliers for any US government agency? And what is/was that whole project really all about?
Update: Reader DF writes, "Under Careers...[Athena Innovative Solutions] are looking for, among other things, 'Media Exploitation Specialists.' They gunning for Rendon/Lincoln Group???" Apparently, yes. Worth noting that according to Wade's bio, from 1991-1993 (Bush I/Cheney Sec of Def) he worked in the Pentagon as a program manager for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence. I believe that would have been Duane P. Andrews. Where is Andrews now? Chief operating officer of SAIC (HQ, San Diego).
Also interesting, Wade's background is Navy intelligence, Wilkes' father was a Navy pilot (who died in a military flying accident off Hawaii), Cunningham was a Navy pilot. One more substrand of what might have brought these people together? But how does alleged co-conspirator 3 Tommy Kontogiannis fit in the picture? How did he initially hook up with Wilkes, Wade and Cunningham? Here's a story on his last run in with the law, in a case that has the outlines of the Cunningham case in smallest miniature (paying $1 million bribe to Queens school district superintendant to get steered a $6.5 million contract to supply what turned out to be defective computers to the Queens school district.)
So who really is Tommy Kontogiannis? And what about those foreign suppliers that MZM is supposed to be evaluating at a new facility in Martinsville, VA? Here's what USA Today found about the center that the Pentagon never requested but Rep. Virgil Goode, recipient of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from Wade and MZM, snuck into a classified provision of a defense spending bill:
Is Kontogiannis a middleman for some of those foreign suppliers that are supposed to be evaluated? Does he represent foreign defense interests? Saudi defense interests? Should we understand him as the Khashoggi of the Cunningham affair?In 2003, [Virgil] Goode [R-VA] said he added a classified provision to a defense spending bill to create the Foreign Supplier Assessment Center, which he understood would be located in his district.
Workers at the center search publicly available databases to perform background checks on potential foreign suppliers of military goods to screen out those that might harm U.S. interests.
You can see that it's not too far of a stretch to wonder about the counter-intelligence implications of this case. Who really is Kontogiannis representing?
(Thx to several readers for various links -- LR, DC, CC, JW, DF, PC, ER, MI, CR, JR, NS.)
P.S. Probably not significant, but interesting to note that Mitchell Wade's mother's maiden name is Saieed. Reader Chris Cruse found the 1930 census records that show Wade's mother's parents, then dry goods merchants in North Carolina, are listed as coming from "Asyria." My friend Andras writes that most likely "indicates an Iraqi connection - Wade's grandparents were most likely Christians from northern Iraq." (Or perhaps from Beirut, further information in census records indicate). Asyriana, indeed.