"A second official who worked for MZM Inc. faces a charge of making illegal campaign contributions to Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr., R-5th.

Richard A. Berglund, identified in court papers as a facility director for a Martinsville office of defense contractor MZM, was charged Thursday with making illegal campaign donations.

In February, MZM founder Mitchell Wade, who is at the center of a bribery scandal involving former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., pleaded guilty to illegal campaign donations to two lawmakers. Goode was identified through campaign records as one of them.

Berglund violated campaign law by aiding and abetting Wade in making illegal donations to the campaign of "Representative A," according to papers filed by U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Wainstein in U.S. District Court in Washington. Goode's spokesman acknowledged that the Virginian was "Representative A."

"I did not know that the donations from Mr. Berglund and his wife were straw donations," Goode said in a written statement.

"Mr. Wade stated in his agreement with the U.S. District Attorney that he did not inform me that the contributions were straw contributions," Goode added.

Prosecutors have used the phrase straw contributions for what they called Wade's technique of getting employees and spouses to make political contributions under their names and reimbursing them.

Goode, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, helped get a $3.6 million appropriation to establish a facility that MZM later was picked to operate in Martinsville. It's called the Foreign Supplier Assessment Center.

The 59-year-old lawyer has not been accused of wrongdoing. He has said he wanted to get good jobs for an economically hard-hit area and believes in the facility's mission.

Reached by phone, Goode declined to comment yesterday. His spokesman, Linwood Duncan, said he knew of no indication federal authorities were investigating Goode.

A phone number listed in Martinsville for Berglund was not in service. His lawyer could not be reached.

Channing Phillips, a spokesman for Wainstein, said no date was set for Berglund to appear in court.

Berglund received cash from Wade early in March 2005 to fund campaign contributions in the names of Berglund, his wife and MZM employees, according to Wainstein's filing.

Berglund used $3,000 of the money for donations of $2,000 each in his own name and that of his wife and paid the remainder from his own money, the filing said.

Two MZM workers wrote checks after getting money from Berglund; the four resulting checks for $2,000 each were given to Wade, and he "handed them to Representative A" at a March 4, 2005, fundraising event, the filing said.

Wade, according to his plea agreement in February and other records, funneled roughly $36,000 in straw donations to Goode in early 2005, sought money for an MZM facility and was assured by the lawmaker's staff in June 2005 of a $9 million appropriation.

Congress passed an annual defense spending bill last year with $9 million for the Foreign Supplier Assessment Center.

Now operated by a successor company to MZM, it checks out the backgrounds of potential foreign suppliers of products to the Defense Department.

Goode gave to charity last year his back donations from MZM's political-action committee and employees, which amounted to more than $90,000.

Cunningham has gone to prison in the bribery case; Wade has not been sentenced." (Peter Hardin, Richmond Times-Dispatch, July 2, 2006)

Editor's Note: An Index to Coverage of Representative Goode on the Loper website may be found at http://loper.org/~george/archives/2005/Dec/985.html