NORTH COUNTY -- A review of this week's federal indictment of a Poway man shows that the alleged web of corruption surrounding imprisoned former Congressman Randy Cunningham apparently began nearly five years earlier than was previously known.

Cunningham pleaded guilty in late 2005 to taking part in a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme that involved bribes in exchange for defense contracts. He is now serving an eight-year, four-month sentence in a federal prison near Tucson, Ariz.

Court documents from his 2005 plea agreement cite the first overt act of corruption of Cunningham as having occurred in May 2000, when Brent Wilkes, the Poway defense contractor referred to as co-conspirator No. 1 in the documents, allegedly gave him two personal checks totaling $100,000. But Tuesday's indictment pegs the start of Wilkes' alleged bribery of the former 50th District representative as "at least as early as September 1996."

Cunningham, a conservative Republican, was first elected to represent portions of North County in Congress in 1990 and served eight consecutive terms until he resigned in late 2005.

While the 2005 court documents do not identify Wilkes by name, his former attorney, Michael Lipman, told reporters that Wilkes was the person referred to as co-conspirator No. 1.

Tuesday's indictment of Wilkes accuses the Poway resident of 25 charges that include 17 counts of fraud, three counts of laundering more than $12 million, one count of bribery, one count of bribing a public official and three counts of unlawful monetary transactions.

On Wednesday, he was arraigned in a San Diego courtroom for the alleged crimes. If convicted on all counts and was to serve maximum consecutive sentences, Wilkes' time behind bars could add up to more than 400 years.

In a Wednesday posting on the Web site of his attorney, Mark Geragos, Wilkes bitterly contested the accusations, saying that he will be vindicated and that prosecutors are trying to force him "to plead guilty to something I did not do."

Also arraigned Wednesday in the same case was New York banker John T. Michael, who was charged with obstruction of justice and faces five years in prison.

In a related but separate case, former CIA Executive Director Kyle "Dusty" Foggo was also arraigned on seven counts of fraud; one count of conspiracy to commit fraud; and three counts of unlawful monetary transactions. Foggo faces the possibility of nearly 150 years in prison if convicted on all counts and if he were to serve maximum consecutive sentences.

Before the three men were photographed, fingerprinted and released Wednesday, federal Judge Larry Alan Burns established conditions for their release. Wilkes must post a $2 million bond, Foggo $200,000 and Michael, $250,000.

The federal grand jury indictment alleges that Wilkes' first overt acts of corruption began as early as September 1996, when he allegedly paid thousands of dollars in meals for Cunningham at Washington restaurants.

According to the indictment, over the years, Wilkes allegedly went on to ply Cunningham with everything from trips to lavish resorts, rides in private jets, cash and prostitutes.

Alleged bribes and pressure

The 1996 date is significant because, according to Tuesday's indictment, it was also around that same time that Cunningham began pressuring Defense Department personnel to provide funding to Wilkes' company, ADCS Inc.

At the time, Wilkes is alleged to have tried to get the federal government to pay ADCS to scan documents and convert them to a digital format. And Cunningham was beginning to pressure Department of Defense officials to fund such a document scanning program.

The indictment also lists other alleged favors and gifts that continued over the following months and years:

- Early 1997: Wilkes allegedly paid a Washington limousine service to chauffeur Cunningham around the nation's capital.

- July 1997: Wilkes allegedly directed an employee to buy a yellow Sea-Doo Speedster for $11,255 and give it to Cunningham.

- August 1998, Wilkes allegedly told an ADCS employee to buy Cunningham a $1,500 notebook computer.

Parallel to those alleged favors, Cunningham and Wilkes allegedly began putting pressure on government officials to obtain funding for document scanning programs.

- May 1998: Cunningham wrote to the chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on National Security, requesting $64 million for document conversion.

- August 1998: Wilkes allegedly threatened a Defense Department program manager with reprisals if he refused to pay ADCS invoices.

- November 1998: Wilkes allegedly threatened a document conversion program manager with "Congressional reprisal if he did not allocate sufficient funding to ADCS projects, and immediately pay all outstanding ADCS invoices (even when it could not be verified that the work had actually been done … or the goods had actually been purchased,)" the indictment states.

- On the same day: Cunningham allegedly contacted the same program manager … and attempted to pressure him into paying the ADCS-related invoices, it states in the indictment.

- February 1999: At Cunningham's direction, staff members allegedly contacted the Defense Department program manager and pressured him to allocate additional funds to ADCS.

- March 1999: Wilkes allegedly "attempted to intimidate a (Defense Department) program manager" in Panama where Wilkes' company was doing document scanning for the U.S. government by "telling him that people disappear in Panama all the time and never make it back home," it states in the indictment.

- The next day, after talking to Wilkes, Cunningham allegedly called the same program manager in Panama and urged him to pay all outstanding ADCS invoices, "(even though the work had not been performed and/or verified by the government program manager,)" the indictment states.

Contact staff writer William Finn Bennett at (760) 740-5426, or wbennett@nctimes.com.