Here are early details of Mitchell Wade's agreement with prosecutors.

From the United States Attorney's Office press release just out:

Wade, 46, of Great Falls, Virginia, entered his guilty plea earlier today in U.S. District Court before the Honorable Ricardo M. Urbina to multiple felony counts related to his wholesale corruption of the defense procurement process. The conduct  includes Wade making over $1 million in payoffs to then- Congressman Duke Cunningham, providing illegal benefits to Defense Department officials, and attempting to curry favor with two other members of Congress by making illegal campaign
contributions.

Much more: 

Specifically, Wade pled to a four-count information, including one count of conspiring both to bribe Congressman Randall "Duke" Cunningham and to tax evasion; one count of Use of Interstate Facilities to Promote Bribery; one count of conspiring to deprive the Defense Department of the honest services of its employees; and one count of election fraud. Under the terms of the agreement, Wade, who has been cooperating with officials in this ongoing investigation, faces up to 135 months of incarceration.<snip>

According to the government's evidence, Wade grew his company, MZM, into a defense contracting company that, since 2002, received over $150 million in Department of Defense  government contracts by engaging in a series of corrupt acts throughout the defense procurement process: from ensuring that the members of Congress who could appropriate funds for special Defense Department projects looked favorably on MZM, to the Department of Defense officials -- some of whom Wade knew when he was a government official -- who could give him favorable reviews and inside information to ensure that the work would continue to flow.

Wade was able to exploit the procurement system in three distinct ways: by bribing a sitting United States Congressman; by conspiring to give favors to Department of Defense officials responsible for procuring services from Wade's company; and by funneling illegal campaign contributions to two Members of Congress.

From the "Corrupt Activities within the Department of Defense" section:

One key to MZM's ability to receive government contracts was an umbrella contracting vehicle called "Blanket Purchase Agreement" and known in the field as a "BPA." A BPA is a contract vehicle that permitted the Defense Department and other departments and agencies to obtain supplies and services on an as-needed basis through a "charge account" system. Operating under a BPA, MZM and Wade were shielded from the normal competitive bidding process used in government procurement and could solicit business from government components directly.

In September of 2002, MZM received its BPA from the Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization, with the acronym "DITCO," making MZM eligible to receive up to $225 million by performing work for Defense Department customers.

The next step was for Wade to arrange for Defense Department officials to buy what he was selling. Wade extended his corrupt behavior into the Defense Department to ensure that the business kept coming regardless of MZM's performance. Wade, himself a former Defense Department employee, knew a number of individuals within the Defense Department who could help him. Wade convinced two Defense Department components, the Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), located in Arlington, Virginia, and the Department of the Army's National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC), located in Charlottesville, Virginia, to provide task orders that MZM could perform under the BPA.

Wade then shielded MZM from the normal performance review by  crossing the line into corrupt activities. Wade's activities included:

• arranging for a Defense Department official's son to be hired as an MZM employee; the cost of that job was ultimately paid for by the government in reimbursement  agreement with MZM; and
• extending an offer of employment, and then ultimately hiring, a Department of Defense official who was responsible for overseeing much of MZM's work. Federal law prohibits government employees from, among other things, discussing potential employment with companies with whom they do government business.
• Certain Department of Defense employees provided: valuable procurement information that MZM could use to tailor a proposal for work that MZM could perform under the BPA;
• an official recommendation that MZM receive contracts under the BPA for certain activities involving the imaging and archiving of Defense Department documents; and
• favorable performance reviews about MZM. These performance reviews were critical to MZM. Notwithstanding the fact that Wade received these purchase orders without competitive bidding as a result of his earlier receipt of the $225 million BPA, MZM could not be assured that they would continue to receive new purchase orders without receiving these type of favorable reviews by Defense Department officials.

In engaging in this corrupt activity, Wade deprived the citizens of the United States of their right to the honest services of government -- the right of the Defense Department to make decisions free from bias and favoritism.

From the "Illegal Campaign Contributions" Section:

Wade also made about $80,000 in illegal campaign contributions to the campaigns of two sitting Members of Congress. Wade targeted these two Members of Congress because he believed that these representatives had the ability to request appropriations funding that would benefit MZM.

Federal law prohibits campaigns from receiving more than $2,000 from any one individual per election, and prohibits entirely corporate contributions. Wade wanted to curry favor with these two members of Congress, so he needed a way around the campaign contribution laws. His solution was to have his employees and their spouses make contributions to these two campaigns under their own names, then reimburse them -- a technique, known as "straw contributions" that is a felony under federal election law when the straw contributions amount to over ten thousand dollars. He did so often by simply handing the employees cash – two thousand dollars for each person – and then immediately "asking" them to make a contribution. All in all, he made 39 different "straw" contributions, with 19 different employees or spouses. In order to maximize the impact of these contributions, Wade personally handed a number of the campaign contributions, in the form of personal checks from employees and their spouses, to one of the representatives.

After Wade made the campaign contributions, Wade asked that one of the Representatives and his staff request appropriations funding for an MZM facility. The Representative's staff later confirmed to Wade that an appropriations bill would include $9 million for the facility.

After making the illegal campaign contributions to the other Representative, Wade had a personal dinner with the Representative, in which the two discussed the possibility of MZM's hosting a fundraiser for the Representative later in the year, and the possibility of obtaining funding and approval for a Navy counterintelligence program. That program was never funded.

Wade did not inform the two Representatives that the contributions were illegal.