SAN DIEGO -- Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham owned a house in Del Mar until November 2003. It sold for $1,675,000 and a month later a for sale sign was up.

It took 8 months to find another buyer for $700,000 less.

The big loser was Mitchell Wade, a defense contractor doing business as MZM, Inc.

Since Cunningham sits on the House Intelligence Committee, and MZM recently landed tens of millions of dollars in government contracts, a red flag went up.

"I think he has a lot of explaining to do," Attorney Stanley Zubel said.

Zubel used to head up the government watchdog group, Common Cause, in San Diego. He said he thinks there should be an ethics investigation.

"These people, these public officials, think they can profit and nobody's watching," Zubel said.

The congressman said he has "no reason to believe the value of the house was inflated then" and there's "no reason to think so today."

"I am proud of my 35 years of public service in both the U.S. Navy and the House of Representatives and can assure my constituents that this was an above board transaction," Cunningham said.

Francine Busby ran for Cunningham's seat last year and said she can't wait to see where this leads.

"This is a military community but it's an American community and in 14 years of not having the spotlight shown on him, it's important to be able to trust your representative," Busby said.