Contractor pleads guilty to bribery

''I take full responsibility for my actions," Wade told Judge Ricardo Urbina after entering his plea to four corruption charges that carry a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.

Cunningham quit Congress last year after he pleaded guilty to taking bribes from Wade and others.

Wade, MZM's former president, also admitted making nearly $80,000 in illegal campaign contributions in the names of MZM employees and their spouses to two other members of Congress, identifiable from Federal Election Commission records as Representative Virgil Goode, Republican of Virginia, and Representative Katherine Harris, Republican of Florida.

''Wade targeted these two members of Congress because he believed that they had the ability to request appropriations funding that would benefit MZM," US Attorney Kenneth Wainstein of Washington said at a news conference following Wade's plea hearing.

The lawmakers apparently were unaware that the donations were illegal, prosecutors said. Goode and Harris have said they would donate campaign funds to charity in the amount of contributions they received from MZM.

Wade also admitted his role in another conspiracy in which he did favors for a Defense Department official, including hiring his son at MZM, and other employees in return for their help in awarding contracts to his company.

The Pentagon employees were not named in court filings, but The Washington Post has identified the official as William S. Rich Jr., who until 2003 was executive director of the Army's National Ground Intelligence Center in Charlottesville, Va. Rich was later hired by MZM.