(Note: If you came here by way of What Really Happened or Raw Story, you should know that my most recent article on this topic presents a much more detailed and formal investigation. And I just may have some breakthrough news on this front before the weekend is out. Stay tuned!)

Folks, I beg you to read through what promises to be a longish post. And when you're done reading, please point others toward it. I've done some research into previously-unexplored areas of a massive corruption scandal.

The journey began early this morning, when I made a stop at Daniel Hopsicker's site, where he has an important new story up: "Cunningham Stripped $700 Million from U.S. Defense -- 'Dukester's' Epic Boo-Hoo Hiding Massive Pentagon Rip-Off."

Hopsicker looks at a California firm called ADCS, which is part of the Wilkes Corporation, which lobbies -- and funds -- a number of Republican politicians, not just Cunningham. Wilkes operates under a variety of names -- the primary sobriquet seems to be "Group W Advisors." The whole shebang is owned by a 50 year-old businessman named Brent Wilkes and his wife Regina.

According to Hopsicker, Wilkes may have subterranean ties to the sleazy world of Jack Abramoff. At this point, I'm not sure. Those interested in pursuing that angle should read Hopsicker's piece and come to their own conclusions.

Even without the Abramoff connection, a little hard-core Googling placed this company in a very interesting light.

Before we go any further, let's clarify one matter: Mitchell Wade, owner of MZM -- the other company accused of bribing Duke Cunnigham -- is described as a "former employee" of Wilkes. And since Wilkes has a dizzying number of "spin-off" firms, who can really say, at this point, where Wilkes ends and MZM begins?

Wilkes runs his own PAC, named ADCS Inc. PAC. He uses that venue and a number of others to grease his way through the corridors of power. ADCS is frequently referred to as a "defense" firm or an "IT" firm. While it does seem to have some history in the field of document services, few have looked into the question of just what it is these people do for the DOD. When folks show up for work at 13970 Stowe Drive in Poway, California, how do they occupy their time?

I believe that this "defense firm" is little more a Potemkin village. A movie set. A false construct.

My findings were summarized in a letter to Hopsicker, which I will share with you here.

* * *

Daniel,

I was going to write just a brief squib directing my readers to your latest piece on Cunningham and his "sugar daddy," Brent Wilkes. Then I noticed that Wilkes corp -- or ADCS, or whatever the hell he's calling it -- is located in Poway, CA. That aroused my interest, because my ladyfriend grew up in that town.

So I started to do some research.

NOTHING ABOUT THAT FIRM MAKES ANY SENSE!

These people built an ostentatious, massive $11 million facility in a small town. Their web page and their ad on Monster list a LOT of subsidiary or related firms.

Note: The subsidiary firms are no longer listed and described on the main web page for Wilkes. You can find that stuff on the old page, still available via Google's cache function.

Yet this story says that ADCS has only about 100 employees.

Only a hundred staffers in a place like that? Each worker must have his own suite!

By the way, the "Bryan Wilkes" listed in the above-cited story is probably the same person who functions as the press secretary for Congressman Ed Royce (R-CA). Check out Royce -- his background might prove as interesting as Cunningham's.

You want to know how weird ADCS is? One of their sub-companies is called Group W Media. The ADCS website describes this company thus:

"Group W Media is a full-service marketing agency offering marketing, advertising, web design and hosting, event planning and graphic design services."

Now go to their web site: www.groupwmedia.net

That is NOT the website for any kind of legitimate advertising or marketing firm.
Look, I've done a lot of work for advertising agencies. I know what an ad firm's web page should look like. Any site in that field will always be flashy, glitzy, cutting edge, "in your face" -- and generously filled with samples of previous work. You would NOT have to log in to see what's going on at a real ad agency. As a moment's thought will tell you, any ad firm is going to pull out out all the stops when it comes to advertising itself.

Group W Media is some sort of cover.

That may sound overly dramatic, but I'm dead serious. That web page is fishier than "Finding Nemo."

I've been taking a look at all the subsidiary firms, and I have yet to see any indication that ADCS actually provides any kind of services to anyone.

Admittedly, my research is preliminary -- but right now, nearly ALL of those subsidiary firms have the odor of the bogus.

Well, there is one ADCS subsidiary that DOES seem to do something -- Group W Events. They do catering. They also host events at the ADCS corporate HQ in Poway. This whole thing seems to be headed up by Brent's wife Regina.

One of her few known clients was...herself. She catered her own fiftieth birthday party. She also put together a huge bash for Republican legislator John Doolittle, another recipient of Wilkes' largesse.

We know that ADCS -- a.k.a. Group W advisors -- has made quite a few political payoffs. This page lists two of the mechanisms as Perfect Wave Technologies and Pure Aqua Technologies. Google provides no hint that either of those companies does any actual work.

Note: Perfect Wave also seems to have funneled money to Texans for a Republican Majority. This may be part of the money that Tom Delay sent out for laundering. See here.

The only Group W employee I've been able to find any background on is a guy named Mark Turok. He has identified himself as Group W's "senior legislative analyst." He seems to have arranged for some of the political donations. He also ran a not-terribly-interesting right-wing blog for a while, although he stopped posting about the time the Cunningham scandal came to light.

The most interesting thing I could find out about Turok is that he's the alumni of "Christian Unified Schools," an institution founded by Tim LaHaye. That factoid may or may not be relevant.

My point is this: I'm unconvinced that the Wilkes corp actually does ANYTHING. Gina Wilkes knows how to throw a nice party, but that's about it. I have a strange feeling that this company exists for the sole purpose of getting massive Defense contracts, which are probably subcontracted out to real firms that do the real work.

I hope that some of this provides you with a few interesting leads. I may publish a version of this letter on my own blog, if only because doing so will save me the trouble of having to write it all out again. (Obviously, I won't publish any reply you make unless you ask me to do so.) Please keep pursuing this story -- my gut tells me that the scandal here is pretty damned sizable.

-- C

UPDATE: I've been privately told by someone I trust that the closest thing to an actual service Wilkes has provided to the DOD was, in essence, xeroxing. If that's true, then -- well, what can one say? Look at the amount of money involved! There's a sort of genius at work here...