Follow-up 2: Red Lights on Capitol Hill

By Ken Silverstein

A few days ago I wondered aloud exactly how Shirlington Limousine of Arlington, Virginia, owned by Christopher Baker—a man with a lengthy history of illegal activity—”got millions of dollars in federal contracts with the Department of Homeland Security and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and if those contracts had anything to do with Shirlington’s relationship with defense contractor and accused Duke Cunningham-briber Brent Wilkes. The latter, readers might recall, allegedly used Baker’s limo service to transport congressmen, CIA officials, and perhaps prostitutes to his Washington parties.

Most companies owned by a man with a 62-page rap sheet aren’t nearly so lucky in winning taxpayer dollars.

Yesterday, a source close to the Cunningham investigation told me that Wilkes and other San Diego defense contractors were behind-the-scenes players at Shirlington. Talking Points Memo looks to have confirmed that, finding that a man named Jerome Foster was a company director for Shirlington from 1995—”the year after the company incorporated in Virginia—”until 1999. Foster owns a company called Pentech, which is represented in Washington by former Rep. Bill Lowery, whose lobbying firm also represented a company owned by Brent Wilkes.

Here’s what I’ve learned about Pentech and Foster: the firm received a series of small Pentagon contracts worth a total of $2.3 million between 1994 and 1998. Also—perhaps just a coincidence—but before starting Pentech Foster was a professor at San Diego State University, for which Lowery lobbied and where Wilkes went to school. According to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Wilkes was a major donor to the university, the athletic director’s office was named after him, and he had courtside seats for basketball games.

With a great assist from Jason Vest at POGO, we’ve learned more about Shirlington Limousine, which operates in what looks to be a deliberately murky way. The limo company does business under at least four different names; in addition, the office addresses listed on its business filings regularly change. A number of those office addresses are actually at residential buildings or business suites, and calls to the listed phone numbers are taken by an answering service.

One of the names the company operates under is Ambassador Luxury Tours and Transportation (website at www.shirlimo.com), which is listed as a vendor by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission. The “Ambassador” website flags a special five-hour tour to Atlantic City and other resorts for $189. Dan Heneghan of the NJCCC said the company has not yet passed the level of business required for a formal license, so there’s no information on file as to which casinos the company specifically does business with.

Meanwhile, we’ve learned that Shirlington had at least two other unreported federal contracts, one with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (for $519,823 $142,000) and another with the Federal Highway Administration (for $142,000 $519,823). That brings Shirlington’s total take from five federal contracts to about $25 million.

It’s possible that Shirlington got all that business on its own. But as the story unravels, it will be interesting to see if the limo service grew so quickly with a little help from its political friends.

Update 1: the paragraph that begins “Here’s what I’ve learned about Pentech and Foster . . .” was added to this piece at 3:10 PM.

Update 2: At around 4:00 PM DHS sent us a copy of Shirlington’s biggest contract (1.7 Mb PDF), which was awarded on Oct. 27, 2005 and was worth $21.2 million. (For those examining the contract, note that the contract is multi-year and itemized in chunks.)

Update 3, May 10, 2006: In the paragraph that begins “Meanwhile, we’ve learned . . . ” two numbers were transposed; the change is noted above. Harper’s Magazine apologizes for the error.

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