The Brent Wilkes-Bill Lowery-Don Dixon connection

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The latest Wilkes/Cunningham sex scandal revelations got me pulling out some notes I made last winter that I didn't know what to do with then but which now seem increasingly relevant.

It appears that Brent Wilkes has been friends since college with a lobbyist named Bill Lowery, who also represented Wilkes' firm, ACDS:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20051223-9999-lz1n23lewis.html

Earmarking has drawn scrutiny since Cunningham pleaded guilty to taking bribes from two defense contractors – including Lowery client Brent Wilkes of Poway-based ADCS Inc. – who received earmarks with Cunningham's support.

Between 1998 and 2002, Wilkes paid Lowery's firm about $200,000 to lobby for his company's defense projects.

Lowery is also mentioned in today's entry at War and Piece as having attended Wilkes' parties:

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/004065.html

A contact who knows Wilkes and his limo driver Chris Baker and Foggo -- the whole crew -- from way back called me as I was running out the door for lunch. . . . apparently Wilkes used to basically live and work out of the Watergate when he was in DC. Later, he got a deal on a presidential suite at the Westin Grand, so his business office, and apparently the poker parties moved there. Two of the former congressmen who this person remembers at some of the poker parties are Bill Lowery and Charlie Wilson, the latter as the SDUT has already reported.

Lowery is the one I was googling on last winter. It turns out that when he was in Congress in the 1980's, he had connections with an unscrupulous financier named Don Dixon:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20051223-9999-lz1n23friends.html

In 1992 . . . Lowery was identified as one of the worst offenders in a group of lawmakers who flagrantly wrote bad checks and expected the House bank to cover them. The "Rubbergate" scandal came just two years after he nearly lost re-election because of his cozy relationship with the fast-living financier Don Dixon, who plundered a Texas savings and loan and stuck taxpayers with a $1.3 billion tab.

Before Dixon was indicted, Lowery rode on Dixon's corporate jet and hosted parties on Dixon's yacht. Dixon held a Christmas fundraiser for Lowery at Dixon's Del Mar beach home, with miniature Christmas trees floating in the pool.

When "Rubbergate" erupted, Lowery was running against freshman Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham in the Republican primary for the newly created 51st District. Cunningham set out to make the race a referendum on character, touting himself as "A Congressman We Can Be Proud Of."

Facing a drumbeat of negative publicity, Lowery dropped out of the race less than two months before the primary.

(Yep, that's how Cunningham started out. Ironic, huh?)

Now here's a little more on Dixon:

http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/submitted/black/whistleblower.html

Dixon controlled Vernon Savings - known to its regulators as "Vermin." Dixon ran the second worst control fraud in America. He provided prostitutes to his (male) board members and the Texas State S&L Commissioner. He had the S&L buy several beach houses in California and a ski chalet in Colorado. He had Vernon buy five jets and a helicopter so he could get to the beach or ski whenever the mood struck. Vernon also purchased the sister ship to the presidential yacht, the Sequoia, and moored it in Washington, D.C. to serve as a lobbying platform for the DCCC. Dixon attained a record - 94 percent of Vermin's loans defaulted.

Dan Dixon's S&L connections lead in all sorts of fascinating directions. For example, he was a protege of Herman Beebe, who provided start-up money for Palmer National Bank, which Ollie North used to launder money for the Contras. But this is sex scandal Friday, so I'm going to resolutely stay on topic.

At this point, I'm going to have to ask the indulgence of the mods because I need to link at a page at Free Republic, which contains a repository of newspaper articles about the old S&L days when Democrats were involved in scandals as well as Republicans. If the mods complain, I will remove the link and just have the quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a38a509795e07.htm

Dixon aide says he hired Wilkening; Testifies madam provided prostitutes
Dayna Lynn Fried; Staff Writer
The San Diego Union-Tribune
November 6, 1990, Tuesday

A former aide to Don R. Dixon contracted with Karen Wilkening and another San Diego madam to provide prostitutes at a 1985 party for Vernon Savings and Loan directors, according to testimony yesterday in Dixon's fraud trial here. . . .

Dixon hosted several fund-raisers during the mid-1980s for politicians, Osuna said, including Rep. Bill Lowery, R-San Diego . . .

During testimony yesterday morning, Osuna's predecessor, Garrison Roth, said he also contracted with Wilkening for prostitutes in 1983. The money was disguised then as "Christmas bonuses" for accounting purposes, he said.

"I was told to call and get eight girls for this party and four girls for that party," said Roth. "I remember having to rush to cash the checks before the Saturday parties and the banks closed so there would be plenty of cash to hand out. Everything had to be done in cash."

(Was this party the same as the Christmas fundraiser that Dixon held for Lowery at his Del Mar beach house? Inquiring minds want to know.)

The bottom line is that I never did establish a direct link between Wilkes and Dixon -- they're only connected by way of Bill Lowery. But their styles sound so similar that it's had to resist concluding that Wilkes in some way was picking up where Dixon left off.

And given that Wilkes did have a minor role in Iran-Contra (see Daniel Hopsicker for that), as did Kyle Foggo (who is also friends with Lowery as well as Wilkes), a more direct Dixon connection might yet turn up.