Weldon associate to plead guilty

A close friend of former U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon has agreed to plead guilty to destroying records soon after the FBI interviewed her about the congressman.

Cecelia M. Grimes, 43, a real estate agent who became a highly paid defense lobbyist, is the second person charged in an influence-peddling investigation involving Weldon, who became an influential member of the House Armed Services Committee during his 20 years in Congress.

Grimes had no Washington experience, and worked out of her home in Media. But she was hired as a lobbyist by giant defense contractors, some of whom won deals with Weldon's help.

The investigation focuses, in part, on whether Weldon - identified as "Representative A" by prosecutors in a criminal information filed yesterday - agreed to support contracts for Grimes' clients "as a quid pro quo for the payment of fees" to the lobbying firm, court papers say. Weldon has not been charged and maintains his innocence. Grimes has agreed to cooperate with the investigation.

She is charged with destruction of evidence. A plea-agreement hearing has been scheduled next week in U.S. District Court in Washington.

In a statement, Grimes' attorneys said she was "extremely remorseful," but defended her lobbying work.

"Any suggestion that Ms. Grimes engaged in any inappropriate, illegal or improper conduct with regard to her role as a lobbyist is incorrect and unfounded," the statement said. Her lawyer, Richard L. Scheff of Philadelphia, declined further comment.

Two FBI agents interviewed Grimes at her home in October 2006 and asked her about how she got into lobbying and her contacts with Weldon, according to the criminal information filed in Washington yesterday.

At the end of the interview, they gave her subpoenas seeking records of two lobbying firms, their clients, and Grimes' travel and e-mails.

Grimes instead filled trash bags with records, including check stubs, records of airline and Amtrak travel, an invitation to a Weldon fund-raiser, and RSVP cards for a dinner honoring Weldon. The FBI recovered the bags from trash cans next to Weldon's house.

The next month, trying to keep her e-mails from being read by the FBI, Grimes dropped her BlackBerry into a trash can at a nearby Arby's restaurant, the information said. That was not recovered.

Weldon's lawyer, William Winning, did not return phone calls and an e-mail seeking comment.

Grimes was first hired as a lobbyist in 2003, eventually representing a number of defense contractors, according to her lobbying disclosures.

The two companies whose records were sought were Grimes and Young, Inc., a partnership with Cynthia Young, a lawyer whose father-in-law is Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R., Fla.), the chairman of the Defense Appropriations subcommittee; and CC Nexus, Inc., a lobbying firm owned solely by Grimes.

One of Grimes' clients was Oto Melara, a subsidiary of a giant Italian defense manufacturer that built a factory near Philadelphia International Airport.

Weldon has fought for the company's products with the Pentagon, asking the Navy to reconsider its buying- a rival firm's guns to outfit its ships.

"Congressman Weldon took an immediate interest in our issue," a company official said in an interview with the Delaware County Daily Times.

Before a House subcommittee that he chaired, Weldon also praised another of Grimes' clients, Advanced Ceramics Research of Tucson, Ariz., for its work in developing "state of the art" composites.

Executives of Advanced Ceramics and Finmeccanica, Oto Melara's parent company, did not return requests for comment yesterday.

Prosecutors also have been looking into Weldon's activities on behalf of Itera International, a giant Russian oil and gas firm that employed his daughter, Karen, and Charles Sexton, a Delaware County power broker.

The FBI raided a company formed by Karen Weldon and Sexton in October 2006. The next month, Weldon lost his reelection bid to Joe Sestak.

The head of a Washington reform organization said Weldon's efforts to help the firms that employed Grimes was a "pretty egregious example" of a culture of corruption involving Washington lobbyists, lawmakers and defense contractors.

"There seemed to be no suggestion that she had done anything at all that made her in any way qualified to be a lobbyist," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

"It was clear that all she could sell was access to Curt Weldon," she said.

In December, Weldon's former chief of staff pleaded guilty to failing to report $19,000 that was paid to his wife through another Russian company, the International Exchange Group.

In a deal to spare his wife from prosecution, Russell James Caso Jr. agreed to cooperate with the investigation. As a congressman, Weldon had sought a grant for the International Exchange Group.

Since last year, Weldon has been working with Defense Solutions, of Exton, a company that touts its work with the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, the Hungarian Ministry of Defense and Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.

Its Web site says it "delivered two battalions of refurbished T-72 Main Battle Tanks and other combat vehicles" to Iraq, and says Defense Solutions worked extensively in Eastern Europe to supply and refurbish armored personnel carriers and Soviet-made T-72 tanks.

The company's chief executive, Timothy Ringgold, was quoted last month by the Philadelphia Daily News as saying he was convinced Weldon was "an absolute straight shooter" who had done nothing wrong. Company officials could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Weldon has transferred the last $80,000 in his campaign account, the Weldon Victory Committee, to a legal defense fund.