3 Alaska Republican lawmakers accused of taking oil bribes

ummm...more GOP lawmakers breaking the laws. I wonder how many more will be caught and exposed before the 2008 elections? Lot'sa GOP congressional seats are open next year.

Ted Stevens' Son Identified In Corruption Case
I would love to see the scumbag Ted Stevens hauled off to jail as one of the most all time corrupt Senators.---BBB

Ted Stevens' Son Identified In Corruption Case
By Laura McGann - May 8, 2007, 12:11 PM

Roll Call and the Anchorage Daily News named Ben Stevens, son of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), as one of the unidentified legislators involved in the VECO cash-for-favors corruption scheme.

According to charges filed Friday against two top executives at the oil company, Stevens' company allegedly received $243,250 for consulting fees that were "in fact for the purpose of obtaining (Stevens') official support on matters pending before the Alaska State Legislature."

Ben's dad, Sen. Stevens, is pals with one of the executives, Bill J. Allen, who pled guilty to bribery charges yesterday. The two men belong to a group that bought a race horse named "So Long Birdie," for a bargain-basement price of $40,000 in 2005.

Allen and his wife also have hosted numerous fundraising events for Stevens, as well as his fellow members of the Alaska delegation, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) and Rep. Don Young (R). A preliminary review of campaign finance records shows Allen and other executives at VECO have made $206,900 in campaign contributions to the Alaska delegation, with more than $72,000 of that total going to Ted Stevens.
Ted Stevens does not seem to be on prosecutors' radar screen in the corruption investigation.

Investigation Involves Alaska Senator
Investigation Involves Alaska Senator
The Associated Press
Tuesday 29 May 2007

Anchorage, Alaska - Federal agents are looking into Sen. Ted Stevens' role in the ongoing investigation into the remodeling of his Alaska home, according to two law enforcement officials familiar with the probe.

The two officials said Stevens was not considered a target of the investigation. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing inquiry.

The investigation has been open for some time, and is linked to the VECO Corp. bribery case that earlier this month produced guilty pleas from two of the oil-field service company's top executives, the law enforcement officials said.

The FBI and Justice Department are investigating corruption in Alaska - which may extend to the state's federally elected officials in Washington, the officials said.

Three contractors who worked on the remodeling project at Steven's home in Girdwood, a resort town about 40 miles south of Anchorage, said the FBI asked them to turn over their records from the job, the Anchorage Daily News reported Tuesday. One also said he testified about the project before a federal grand jury in December.

The remodeling work in summer and fall 2000 more than doubled the size of the house, a four-bedroom structure that is Stevens' official residence in Alaska.

Ted Stevens and his wife, Catherine, declined to answer questions about the Girdwood house. Stevens' office issued a prepared statement.

"While I understand the public's interest in the ongoing federal investigation, it has been my long-standing policy to not comment on such matters," he said. "Therefore, I will withhold comment at this time to avoid even the appearance that I might influence this investigation."

Federal agents last summer raided offices of six state legislators, including those of one of Ted Stevens' sons, Ben Stevens, who was then the president of the state Senate. The FBI said then that it also had executed a search warrant in Girdwood. The location of that search has not been officially disclosed.

VECO, an oil-field service company with a long history of lobbying and donating to political campaigns, was a target of investigators, according to search warrants that became public. On May 7, the company's longtime chief executive, Bill Allen, and a vice president, Rick Smith, pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy, bribery and tax charges. They are now cooperating with authorities.

Four current or former Alaska state lawmakers have been indicted on federal corruption charges.

Augie Paone, owner of Christensen Builders Inc. of Anchorage, said Bill Allen hired him to complete the framing and most of the interior carpentry at Stevens' home. He was directed to send bills to VECO, where someone would examine them for accuracy, before sending them to Stevens, he said.

Paone said that as far as he knew, Stevens and his wife, Catherine, paid his bills. He sent at least $100,000 in invoices to the Stevenses in Washington, he said.

Sen. Stevens Told to Keep Records for Graft Probe
Sen. Stevens Told to Keep Records for Graft Probe
By Paul Kane
The Washington Post
Thursday 07 June 2007

Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, disclosed in an interview that the FBI asked him to preserve records as part of a widening investigation into Alaskan political corruption that has touched his son and ensnared one of his closest political confidants and financial backers.

Stevens, who is famous for bringing home federal earmarks for Alaska when he was Appropriations Committee chairman, was not previously known to be linked to the Justice Department's probe, which has uncovered evidence that more than $400,000 worth of bribes were given to state lawmakers in exchange for favorable energy legislation.

Investigators have used secret recording equipment, seized documents and cooperating witnesses to secure the indictments of four current and former state lawmakers, including the former state House speaker, shaking the core of Alaska's Republican Party.

Two executives of a prominent energy company have pleaded guilty to bribery and extortion charges and are cooperating with the inquiry, which is being run by the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section and includes two federal prosecutors and FBI agents based in Anchorage.

"They put me on notice to preserve some records," Stevens said in a brief interview about his legal team's discussions with the FBI. He declined to say what kinds of records were involved but confirmed that he had hired lawyers and that his son, former state Senate president Ben Stevens, "is also under investigation."

The FBI issued subpoenas last year to contractors who had performed work on Ted Stevens's Anchorage residence, seeking information about the alleged involvement of energy company executive Bill J. Allen, a key figure in the state bribery probe, in overseeing the renovations.

There has been no indication that Stevens is a target of the investigation, and federal law enforcement officials this week declined to comment about the probe.

Stevens has long been close to Allen, who formerly directed Veco Corp., the energy company at the heart of the corruption probe. Since 2000, Allen has contributed more than $50,000 to political and campaign committees controlled by Stevens. In 2005 and 2006 alone, Allen and other Veco executives gave Stevens-affiliated election committees $37,000, Federal Election Commission records show. A Stevens aide said the senator recently decided to donate contributions from Allen and another Veco executive from 2004 to 2006 to charity.

Several years ago, Allen joined with Stevens and a handful of other corporate executives to purchase thoroughbred horses, according to Stevens's financial disclosures to the Senate.

In early May, Allen and another Veco executive pleaded guilty to bribing state legislators primarily to secure the passage of tax legislation creating a natural gas pipeline that could have yielded Veco billions of dollars in revenue, court records show.

As part of the plea, Allen admitted that his bribes included $243,250 in no-show consulting work from 2002 to 2006 to "state senator B" to win the lawmaker's support for the pipeline project and other legislative matters. State financial reports filed by Ben Stevens list the same dollar amount in receipts from Veco; for several of those years, his father was Appropriations Committee chairman.

Ben Stevens's legislative offices were raided by the FBI in August, but he has not been charged with a crime. "We believe that the facts will show that Mr. Stevens didn't engage in any illegal activity," said John Wolfe, the lawyer for Ben Stevens.

A string of subpoenas issued by a federal grand jury last year indicate that the FBI is seeking information on the financing of the renovation of Ted Stevens's Anchorage home at a cost exceeding $100,000, according to several of those who received the subpoenas. In the renovation, the contractors lifted the home - located next to an exclusive ski resort - on stilts and built a new floor beneath the existing one.

Two contractors confirmed in phone interviews a report in the Anchorage Daily News that their work on Stevens's home was overseen by Allen, other Veco executives and a neighbor of the Stevenses. Augie Paone, owner of Christensen Builders Inc. of Anchorage, told the newspaper last week that he heard from the FBI in May 2006 and testified before a federal grand jury about the home remodeling project in December.

In a phone interview this week, Paone said, "My lawyers told me it would not be wise to talk while the investigation is ongoing. We'll just see what happens in the next couple of weeks."

Another contractor on the home-renovation project, Toney Hannah, said invoices his company issued for their work were paid by Stevens and his wife, Catherine. "I raised the house; they subpoenaed the file I had on it," Hannah, who specializes in raising homes for remodeling, said in a phone interview. "I was just a subcontractor. I did my part; I raised the house. I was paid by the Stevenses, and that was it."

Allen and Veco executives have also been backers of Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), a past chairman of the Resources Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. In the 2006 election cycle, Young took in more than $30,000 from Veco executives, and his chief of staff is a former lobbyist whose clients included Veco.

According to his plea agreement, Allen first "corruptly authorized" the hiring of "state senator B" in 1995 to perform consulting work six years before his election.

Investigators recorded meetings between Allen and Veco executives and lawmakers inside a Juneau hotel room a block from the state capitol, where they regularly met the bribed lawmakers, often handing them wads of hundreds of dollars.

In early May 2006, after helping defeat an amendment Veco opposed for the gasoline legislation, former state House speaker Peter Kott met with Allen in Suite 604 as part of his effort to secure a Veco job in Barbados. "I had to get 'er done. So I had to come back and face this man right here," Kott told Allen, according to court records. "I had to cheat, steal, beg, borrow and lie."

Stevens said that he has not spoken to Justice Department officials, that he was complying with the request to preserve documents and that he anticipated turning them over at some point. He and his staff declined to specify whether the investigators were seeking records on personal finances, legislative actions or both.

Stevens is the ranking Republican on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. He said his lawyers warned him that any public statements could be construed as an attempt to obstruct the inquiry.
-------------------------------------

Staff researcher Madonna A. Lebling contributed to this report.

congressman denies he helped contributor secure earmark
Alaskan congressman denies he helped contributor secure federal earmark
By Kevin Diaz
McClatchy Newspapers
6/8/07

WASHINGTON - Rep. Don Young, who's made a career out of bringing federal dollars to Alaska, shrugged off reports Thursday that he steered millions of dollars to help a prominent campaign contributor with a Florida road project.

Young's role in the Fort Myers Coconut Road deal two years ago has received growing media scrutiny in recent months as the new Democratic Congress debates earmark reform, an agenda popularized by Alaska's so-called "bridges to nowhere" championed by Young and Sen. Ted Stevens.

Both Republican lawmakers were subjects of national news reports Thursday: Stevens in a Washington Post story on the federal bribery investigation that's enveloped his son, former Alaska Senate President Ben Stevens; Young in a New York Times story describing how he sponsored a $10 million earmark for a road project that helped Florida real estate developer Daniel Aronoff, days after Aronoff helped raise $40,000 for Young's campaign.

The Times reported that it got no response from Young other than an obscene gesture.

In a statement to McClatchy Newspapers, Young didn't dispute any facts in the story, which he called "old news."

But he did dismiss any suggestion of tradeoffs for campaign cash, noting that businesses with interests before the powerful Transportation Committee that he chaired until last year routinely gave its senior members lots of money.

"Every story that comes out is the same, with different players and different projects," he said. "When you are the chairman of the largest committee in the House, and a senior member, and in charge of writing a $290-odd billion bill, it's a guarantee that you are going to be raising more money than other less senior members. . . . It's also a guarantee that there will be a plethora of projects for people to look at and pick apart. This is a recycled story."

Young's defense is similar to one he gave in April to explain campaign contributions from Dennis Troha, a Wisconsin trucking executive who allegedly benefited improperly from road legislation originating in Young's committee.

Young, further dogged by the guilty plea of former aide Mark Zachares in connection with the Jack Abramoff bribery scandal, has retained a Washington law firm to represent his campaign.

Congressional Democrats, who've been dueling with Republicans over ethics reform, were quick to pick up on the revelations in Florida, which were first reported in the Naples (Fla.) Daily News.

"The fact is Don Young forced $10 million on a Florida county - over their objections - to satisfy a major campaign donor," charged Fernando Cuevas, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "The only thing `recycled' about Don Young's pay-to-play earmarking scheme is his justification for wasting taxpayer money."

Two years after the fact, it remains unclear whether or not Young's earmark was welcome in Florida.

A spokesman for Rep. Connie Mack, a fellow Republican who represents the Fort Myers district, said his office learned of the Coconut Road earmark only after it was inserted in a major road-spending bill in 2005.

"We never solicited or asked for anybody to support the Coconut Road interchange until after it was enacted," said Jeff Cohen, Mack's chief of staff.

What Mack and other Florida lawmakers did support was federal money to expand Interstate 75 in the fast-growing area of Lee and Collier Counties. As for the Coconut Road interchange - a boon to Aronoff, who reportedly owns some 4,000 acres along the road - Cohen said, "Local leaders ought to make local decisions."

In fact, county officials have voted twice not to use the Coconut Road earmark, although since then Mack, Young and others have urged them to use the cash or risk losing federal money for the county.

Young's involvement in the region appears to have begun in early 2005, when Mack invited him to southwest Florida to see firsthand the region's transportation problems.

"Southwest Florida came together and presented a sound and passionate plea for resources to expand Interstate 75," Mack said in a January 2006 letter to Lee County Commissioner John Albion. Young returned to Washington, Mack continued, with a better understanding of "our region's economy, our quality of life, and the safety and security of Southwest Florida's residents and visitors."

Young also returned with as much as $40,000 in campaign contributions or pledges gathered at a fundraiser at the Hyatt Coconut Point, most of it from Florida developers and builders, including Aronoff.

If they are guilty,throw them in prison.
But lets wait for a trial and a jury to decide.

Wiating for a trial and a jury didn't seem to be a requirement when you compared Clinton to Libby. I guess you only want to wait for a trial and a jury if it is a Republican.

By all means, let's have a jury and a trial. Then let's lock 'em up.

Let's put them with Abramoff (is he in the can yet, or has he worked another scam to delay it?) and Libby, and Randy Cunningham, and with any luck Gonzales. If we hurry and get it done before the fall TV season new shows, I've got a great idea for the next hit TV reality show--"Republican Jailbreak". Watch them tunneling, exciting carjackings, running gunbattles with chasing cops.

"3 Alaska Republican lawmakers accused of taking oil bribes."

Gracious what's with those Alaskan Republicans? Surely, there are more than 3 Alaska Republican lawmakers!

No wonder the GOP is in trouble, they don't seem to want to work hard enough on their favorite issue, political graft.

But I do see the sunny side, this time its only three of Alaska Republican lawmakers. It could have been more.

I see this as the emblematic slogan for the GOP come election time:
"Only a few off us are corrupt!"

BTW mysteryMAN!, is right on target, lets have a trial 'for we hang 'um!

After so, I would advocate clubbing them to death like baby seals.

username


Don't forget to invite Congressman Jefferson from Louisiana to the gathering.

BBB

It's called "equal justice under the laws."

A TV series about the Reps would be a huge hit. They make the Sopranos look like a bunch of Sunday-school kids. To protect the innocent among us, and to avoid FCC scrutiny, it would have to show on cable.

It's scary to think of.

Just hang all Republicans, and the crime problem would go away. Also outlaw freezers.

I heard that Stevens kept his ill-gotten gains hidden in the permafrost.

BBB, any chance of your posting some thoughts of your own?

BBB,
From your own link we get this...



So,Senator Stevens is NOT being investigated.
Why are all of you making a big fuss about him,when his son is the one being investigated?

Did you read beyond the first paragraph, mm?

I think you need to add a great big "yet" there. He's not being investigated YET.

The feds want daddy to preserve his records, and from the article he's been really buddy buddy for years with the guy that bought his son , hands in each other's pockets on a lot of different deals. Who's gonna be next to fall, Ted? I'd say they're fgoing down like tenpins, except I live in Massachusetts, so I'll say they're falling like candlepins.

OK, that actually made me laugh out loud.

Grand Jury Examines Stevens' Ties to Veco
Grand Jury Examines Stevens' Ties to Veco
By Richard Mauer
The Anchorage Daily News
Sunday 17 June 2007

A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., heard evidence last month about the expansion of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens' Girdwood home in 2000 and other matters connecting Stevens to the oil services company Veco Inc.

As the far-reaching federal investigation into corruption in Alaska politics spreads to Washington, Stevens family friend and neighbor Bob Persons was ordered to appear before a grand jury in Washington on May 25. The government directed him to produce documents related to the work on Stevens' Girdwood house, especially to work that might have been performed by Veco and contractors who were hired or supervised by Veco.

Another close associate of Stevens, Anchorage businessman Bob Penney, testified two weeks ago before the federal grand jury in Anchorage that has been gathering evidence in the corruption cases.

The house expansion project, first reported in the Daily News on May 29, more than doubled the size of the home. The Stevenses had asked Persons, who lives above the Double Musky restaurant he owns in Girdwood, to help them oversee the addition while they were in Washington.

The existence of the Washington grand jury investigation is the strongest indication to date that Stevens himself has become a subject of the wide-ranging federal probe that surfaced with FBI raids on state legislative offices last August. Former State Sen. Ben Stevens, Ted Stevens' son, was among the legislators whose offices were searched. Ben Stevens has denied wrongdoing.

The FBI said at the time that it also had executed a search warrant in Girdwood, among other places, although the location of that search has never been disclosed.

Veco Guilty Pleas

The investigation by the FBI and the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section has so far led to guilty pleas by former Veco chief executive Bill Allen, former Veco vice president Rick Smith and private-prison lobbyist Bill Bobrick. Four current or former state legislators have been indicted and are awaiting trial on corruption charges, three for taking bribes or attempting to take bribes from Veco, the other for taking bribes from the private prison interest.

How the Girdwood home fits in with the broader investigation, or what possible crimes are being investigated, is not clear.

Persons was ordered by the Washington grand jury to produce documents going back more than eight years, including all letters, e-mails and other documents involving Ted, his wife, Catherine, or Ben Stevens. Specifically mentioned were records about a race horse partnership, Alaska's Great Eagle, he manages for Ted Stevens, Allen, Allen's son Mark, Penney and others.

But the main focus was clearly on the Girdwood addition. Persons was directed to produce blueprints and other plans, photos and purchase and installation documents for all phases of the project, including the heating system, generators, ice-melt systems and decorative lights. His summons also told him to bring invoices, payments and other documents related to several Veco employees and to the main contractor, Augie Paone of Christensen Builders in Anchorage.

Persons' didn't return a call for comment last week.

In a brief interview May 18, a week after he received his subpoena and one week before his date with the grand jury, Persons acknowledged he would be testifying, but didn't say where or in what setting.

Stevens Goes to France

Stevens left for France on Thursday to be President Bush's official representative to the Paris Air Show. His spokesman, Aaron Saunders, said that in any event Stevens and his wife would continue to refrain from commenting on the investigation.

FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez also declined to comment.

Penney would not discuss his testimony.

"All that stuff is confidential," he said from his home in Soldotna. Penney and Stevens are longtime friends and business associates. Every summer for more than a decade, Stevens and Penney bring VIPs to Alaska for the Kenai River Classic, a king salmon tournament that raises money for fish habitat.

Penney's attorney, Bruce Gagnon, said of Penney's appearance before the grand jury: "I think you know as well as I do what they're interested in." Asked whether that was Ted Stevens and Ben Stevens, Gagnon said, "Yeah, yeah."

"And why are they going off in Washington, D.C., as well as here?" Gagnon wondered out loud. "It may well be because they want to try this case back there."

Gagnon said he only knew of one witness - Persons - who had been called before the Washington grand jury.

In the face of two years of video surveillance of his company's suite in Juneau's Baranof Hotel and wiretaps on his telephones, Allen pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy, bribing legislators and violating tax laws. Smith, a fixture in that suite, also pleaded guilty. They face about 10 years in prison but hope to reduce their time by cooperating with prosecutors. Their sentencings have not been scheduled.

Alluding to Ben Stevens

The charging documents against Allen and Smith contained barely veiled references to Ben Stevens, alleging that "State Senator B" accepted $243,250 in phony "consulting" payments from Veco in exchange for advice, lobbying colleagues and taking official acts. Ben Stevens' legislative disclosures say he received that amount of money from Veco for consulting. But nothing in those documents appeared to refer to Ted Stevens. However, a seemingly out of place sentence in a paragraph on Veco described the company's activities: "Veco was not in the business of residential construction or remodeling."

In interviews with the Daily News in May, Paone said he was hired by Allen to complete the framing and other carpentry on the addition. He said he submitted more than $100,000 in invoices for the job to Veco. After Veco approved the invoices, he received a check in the mail from the Stevenses that appeared to have been written on a new account - all the check numbers were in single or double digits.

Stevens' home sits about two blocks from the day lodge parking lot at the Alyeska ski area. It was a single story building until the expansion, when a house mover from Anchorage, Tony Hannah, jacked it up so a new living area could be inserted under the original house. A garage was also built.

Paone said he testified before a federal grand jury in Anchorage in December.

Last month, Stevens' office issued this statement about the investigation: "While I understand the public's interest in the ongoing federal investigation, it has been my long-standing policy to not comment on such matters. Therefore, I will withhold comment at this time to avoid even the appearance that I might influence this investigation."

Role of Grand Juries

Legal experts in corruption cases said that while it's unusual for prosecutors to use grand juries in separate jurisdictions in an investigation, they may have sound reasons. The experts also cautioned that even though prosecutors may be presenting evidence to a grand jury, that doesn't mean crimes have been committed.

Paul Butler, a law professor at George Washington University and a former federal attorney who prosecuted a U.S. senator and several FBI agents, said it could simply be a matter of convenience for witnesses.

Jules Epstein, a law professor at the Widener University School of Law in Wilmington, Del., and a criminal defense lawyer, said the grand juries could be investigating separate, unlinked crimes.

Peter Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, said prosecutors might bring a case against a popular elected official in Washington to avoid being "home-courted."

Prosecutors don't take an investigation into a sitting member of Congress lightly, Butler said. They almost certainly must get the approval of the attorney general, he said.

Ex-Bush official sentenced in Abramoff scandal