Auction of Cunningham’s loot brings almost $100,000

The Treasury Department auctioned off antiques and home furnishings used to bribe former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., Thursday, netting nearly $100,000 for FBI and Internal Revenue Service investigative operations.

The auction disposed of items given to Cunningham by defense contractors in return for the use of his influence to channel lucrative contracts toward their firms using his position on the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. Cunningham pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion charges in November, and was sentenced in early March to eight years and four months in federal prison for accepting more than $2.4 million in bribes.

According to court documents filed by Cunningham's defense team, doctors have estimated the 64-year-old's average life expectancy at seven years due to health problems.

Earlier this month, the court also ordered Cunningham to pay $3.65 million in back taxes and forfeited assets. Items sold in Thursday's auction will not count toward meeting the tax obligations, however, because they were seized by the federal government as misbegotten gains and were not rightfully Cunningham's.

Instead, the auctioned goods will place $94,625 in the coffers of the Treasury Asset Forfeiture Fund, where they will be shared between the FBI and IRS investigative divisions that worked on the case. The Defense Criminal Investigative Service, which also worked on the case, will not receive any of the auction proceeds.

Britney Sheehan, a public relations staffer with EG&G Technical Services, which has a contract with the Treasury Department to manage and dispose of seized property, said, "We were happy with the auction turnout and very happy with the sale results."

Those results included the sale of an Oriental carpet for $10,000, a marble-topped sideboard that went for $5,000, and 33 other home furnishings. The least expensive item sold was a rattan folding screen, which went for $225.

Mitchell Wade, the former president of Washington, D.C.-based defense contractor MZM, pleaded guilty last month in related charges of bribery and corrupting Defense Department officials, after admitting he had provided Cunningham with cash, meals, travel, antiques, yacht club fees and other benefits. Antiques paid for by Wade were among those auctioned off this week.

Kay Coles James, a former director of the Office of Personnel Management who joined MZM as a senior executive vice president shortly before Wade resigned as a result of the scandal, also became involved in legal action. She resigned from her new post shortly after Wade's involvement was revealed.

James was sued by Athena Innovative Solutions, formerly MZM, for a portion of a signing bonus she received in return for a three-year commitment to the firm. That case was dropped in December 2005.