Virgil Goode
Representative Virgil Goode (R-VA), who represents Virginia’s 5th district, sits on the powerful House Appropriations Committee.
Admitted felon Mitchell Wade and his employees at the defense contractor MZM donated heavily to Goode; in an apparent exchange, Goode was instrumental in securing millions to support an MZM facility in his district.
Go to TPMmuckraker to learn more about the connections between Goode and MZM as the news unfolds.
Key Points:
Goode received almost $90,000 in campaign contributions from Wade and MZM Inc. employees, more than a third of which were “straw” donations.
MZM employees donated $89,176 between 2003 and 2005. In addition, Wade has admitted that $38,000 of this amount came from his “straw” donations: he asked—and in some cases forced—employees to donate to the Goode campaign, and then reimbursed them for doing so. In effect, Wade attempted to circumvent campaign finance laws by donating funds in other people’s name. Richard A. Berglund, a manager at MZM, has pled guilty to “aiding and abetting” Wade in this scheme. Goode says he's donated the entire amount he received from MZM to charity and its employees.
Goode was named as “Representative A” in Mitchell Wade’s February 2006 plea agreement. Wade told prosecutors that Goode did not know that any of the donations were illegal.
Goode secured millions in federal money for MZM projects.
In 2003, Goode directed $3.6 million in defense funds to a plan to start the Foreign Supplier Assessment Center (FASC), a program that the Pentagon did not even want. MZM received the contract to operate the FASC. Goode ensured that another $9 million in appropriations found its way to MZM for running the FASC in 2005.
Goode was instrumental in procuring unusually favorable conditions from Virginia for a MZM facility in Martinsville, VA.
In 2003, MZM purchased a government-built facility in Martinsville, VA for the FASC with the help of several strong financial incentives, which were brokered with Goode’s direct involvement. Goode acted as an intermediary between local officials and MZM, and was so involved in procuring financial support from the state of Virginia for the project that it became known as “Project Goode”, the Roanoke Times reports. In addition, the city took on the risk associated with loans given to the company, risks that the companies normally take on under such circumstances.
Research by Jeff Hughes
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