Odd Links to Wilkes Surface in Shirlington’s RecordsAs Josh reported over at TPM last night, we’re finding some odd connections between Brent Wilkes, owner of San Diego, CA-based ADCS Inc., and the Virginia-based Shirlington Limousine Company, which he is reported to have hired to ferry hookers to and from his “hospitality suites” in various Washington D.C. hotels, where he entertained congressmen and others.
The main tie seems to be the persona of Jerome Foster, another San Diego-based defense contractor, who sat on the board of Shirlington Limo from its inception in the early 1990s until 2000. As Josh explains it, the two are connected through a third man, former Rep. Bill Lowery (R-CA):
If you’ve followed the Wilkes story, you know that the guy who taught Wilkes how Washington works and has been in the mix with him ever since is former Rep. Bill Lowery (R-CA). Wilkes first spent quality time with Lowery back in the 1980s when one of Wilkes’ jobs was to take Lowery on trips down to Central America to hang with Kyle “Dusty” Foggo and the Contras.
Good fun like that can’t last forever, of course. And in 1992 Lowery lost his seat to freshman Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham after the two San Diego reps were pushed into the same district and had to run against each other.
Out of work, Lowery decided to become a lobbyist. . . Not surprisingly, after Lowery set up his lobbying firm Copeland Lowery & Jacquez, Wilkes hired him to lobby for his company ACDS. Between 1998 and 2002, Wilkes paid Lowery’s outfit some $200,000.
Anyway, strange as it may seem, another one of Lowery’s clients was none other than Jerome Foster’s Pentech.
Strange, indeed. What was Foster doing on the board of a Virginia limousine company with such unusual operating practices? And was it a coincidence that he used Wilkes’ pal and business partner, Bill Lowery, as his D.C. lobbyist?
