Company linked to convicted developer financed Cunningham condo

SAN DIEGO A company linked to a New York businessman who was convicted in a bid-rigging scheme helped Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham finance his Arlington, Virginia, condominium.

Coastal Capital financed the 150-thousand dollar mortgage on Cunningham's two-bedroom condominium, according to court records. In 2003, Coastal Capital financed one-point-one (m) million dollars in mortgages toward the purchase of Cunningham's seven-bath home in Rancho Santa Fe outside San Diego.

Coastal Capital is run by the nephew and daughter of Thomas T. Kontogiannis, a Long Island developer who pleaded guilty in October 2002 in a bid-rigging, bribe and kickback scheme involving New York City school computer contracts worth millions of dollars. Kontogiannis bought Cunningham's boat, the Kelly C, in 2002.

A federal grand jury is investigating Cunningham's sale of a Del Mar, California, home in 2003 to a defense contractor at what may have been an inflated one-point-seven (m) million dollar price. Mitchell J. Wade, founder of defense firm MZM Inc., sold the home nearly a year later for 975-thousand, losing 700-thousand. Cunningham also lived on Wade's 42-foot yacht, the Duke Stir, docked in Washington.

Copyright 2005 Associated Press.