If you haven't heard of him before, Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Escondido (San Diego), California is a powerful and vocal member of the defense appropriations subcommittee. He is one of the Pentagon's strongest advocates in Congress. The San Diego Union Tribune is today
reporting that Cunningham may be involved in a questionable sale of his former home to a defense contractor.
Apparently Mitchell Wade, owner of Washington based MZM, Inc., paid a just little too much for the transaction:
Mitchell Wade bought the San Diego Republican's house for $1,675,000 in November 2003 and put it back on the market almost immediately for roughly the same price. But the Del Mar house languished unsold and vacant for 261 days before selling for $975,000.
It is interesting that the house sat on the market for so long considering that home values in Del Mar rose about 20% that year. But please don't feel too badly for Mr. Wade. Although his real estate investment may have not been a good one, his career as a defense contractor took a turn for the better soon thereafter:
Wade was a Pentagon program manager before launching MZM in 1993, and he struggled to get contracts as recently as three years ago.
But in 2003 and 2004, roughly around the time of the house transaction, MZM's fortunes began to soar. In fiscal year 2003, it received $41 million in defense contracts. Since then, MZM has added tens of millions of dollars in additional contracts, including a $5 million sole source contract to provide interpreters in Iraq.
In 2004, MZM had $66 million in revenues, according to Washington Technology magazine, which put the relative corporate newcomer on its 2005 list of "Top 100 Federal Prime Contractors."
It will be interesting to see how this story pans out over the next couple of months. My guess is that unless the local media carries the banner, it will get swept under the carpet like so many other recent GOP scandals. I'm actually surprised the San Diego Union-Tribune even reported the story in the first place. They are a very right wing, pro-military, newspaper.