Over two years after the story first broke, the MZM/NGIC case continues to unfold. I wrote in July of 2005 that Robert Fromm had left the National Ground Intelligence Center to work for MZM, where he became a senior vice president. His son was extended the same deal and, about that time, some sweet contracts started rolling into MZM from the federal government.
Now Fromm will plead guilty to a federal conflict of interest charge, Rob Seal reports for the Daily Progress. Fromm is facing a year in prison, which presumably enough that Fromm will consider a deal with the feds, which is what they’ve been dangling in front of some of these lower-level guys to get to the big fish.
Following this MZM case has certainly taught me patience in these matters. Things move awfully slow, but they are moving.
I had this earlier this week, but wasn’t able to get to it.
Yes, the MZM debacle keeps grinding out news at a snails pace. The other interesting thing is the news about 13 sitting representatives in Congress that have resisted the pull of a subpoena so far. The action came from Brent Wilkes lawyer, Mark Geragos, in an effort to derail the case against his client.
The list is mostly of Republicans, but includes a few Democrats as well.
Party affiliation does not matter, corruption needs to be investigated and stamped out. All these representatives should be cooperating, not resisting… Grr.
So who are the big fish? I thought they already got those (Congressman Cunningham and MZM founder/CEO Mitch Wade. The only other big fish I can think of, and the only logical reason Wade hasn’t been sentenced yet, is Brent Wilkes.
Also, didn’t you suggest a number of times that Martinsville was going to pay dearly for the horrible deed done to it by Congressman Goode? I read a while back that Martinsville got a steal of a deal on the former MZM building, something to the tune of a $5M bldg purchased for $1.6M. I’ll bet a lot of small Virginia towns would love to get screwed over like that. ;-)
Remember that this whole thing is part of a much larger scandal, implicating Pentagon personnel, Duty Foggo, Cunningham briber Thomas Kontogiannis’ alleged transfer of arms to Greece, John Michael’s money laundering and Carol Lam’s firing. Foggo, Michael, and Wilkes have been indicted, while Berglund, Cunningham, Wade and Kontogiannis have pleaded guilty. Rep. Harris is surely under the same suspicion as Rep. Goode, since the two of them received so much money from MZM. Fromm just moved from the “named” to the “pleaded guilty” column. It’s where this whole thing gets tied up with the Abramoff scandal where things really get fun, bringing in all of the people tangled up in that. And then there’s Judge Laurence H. Silberman and Sen. Charles Robb, who had three MZM employees serve as staff consultants in investigating prewar intelligence before recommending that the Counterintelligence Field Activity receive more money…which just went right to MZM.
Obviously, I have no special knowledge here, I can only do what I’ve done all along: point to the things that just don’t seem quite right. Whether or not those turn out to be actionable offenses remains to be seen.
I wrote in August 2006 that Martinsville would owe $130k-$140k, in February that it would be more like $145k, later in February that it turned out to be $150k. Never did I suggest anything more dire.
supposedly Fromm was sentenced on October ninth—I wonder what he got—IF ANYTHING