Federal Agents Raid GOP Senator's Home
By DAN JOLING,AP
Posted: 2007-07-31 07:13:26
Filed Under: Law News, Nation News, Politics News

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (July 31) - Federal agents searched the home of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens on Monday, focusing on records related to his relationship with an oil field services contractor jailed in a public corruption investigation, a law enforcement official said.

Stevens, 83, has been under a federal investigation for a 2000 renovation project more than doubling the size of his home in Girdwood that was overseen by Bill Allen, a contractor who has pleaded guilty to bribing Alaska state legislators.

Allen is founder of VECO Corp., an Alaska-based oil field services and engineering company that has reaped tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts.

Agents from the FBI and Internal Revenue Service started their search at the senator's home Monday afternoon, said Dave Heller, FBI assistant special agent. He said he could not comment on the nature of the investigation.

About 15 agents took photos and video of various angles of the house and eventually entered it.

A law enforcement official familiar with the case confirmed the raid on Stevens' home was focused on records related to the ongoing VECO investigation. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

An e-mail statement issued by Stevens through his Washington, D.C., spokesman said federal agents had alerted his attorneys that they wanted to search his home.

Stevens, who has been in office since 1968 and is the longest-serving Republican in Senate history, said the interests of justice would be best served if he commented after the investigation.

"I continue to believe this investigation should proceed to its conclusion without any appearance that I have attempted to influence its outcome," Stevens said. "The legal process should be allowed to proceed so that all the facts can be established and the truth determined."

The Justice Department's probe into Allen's relationships has led to charges against state lawmakers and contractors. Last year, FBI raids on the offices of several Alaska lawmakers included Stevens' son, former Alaska Senate President Ben Stevens.

Neither the U.S. senator nor his son has been charged.

Paper reports Young's Veco ties investigated in federal probe
ANONYMOUS SOURCES: His alleged Veco ties being scrutinized, according to Wall Street Journal.
The Associated Press
(Published: July 25, 2007)

LINK

U.S. Rep. Don Young is under criminal investigation, the second member of Alaska's congressional delegation to be part of a federal corruption probe, a newspaper reported.

Young is being investigated for his alleged ties to Veco, the Anchorage-based company whose former top two executives -- including former CEO Bill Allen -- have pleaded guilty to bribing Alaska state lawmakers, the Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources, reported on its Web site late Tuesday.

Investigators are trying to determine whether Young or U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens took bribes, illegal gratuities or unreported gifts from Veco, the newspaper reported, citing only "people close to the case."

A message left by The Associated Press late Tuesday at Young's Washington, D.C., office was not immediately returned.

The Daily News could not independently verify facts in the Wall Street Journal story.

Stevens has continually declined to comment on the corruption investigation, which involves the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department.

The Journal said Allen held fundraisers called "the Pig Roast" for Young every August for 10 years. Public records show Young received $157,000 from Veco employees and its political action committee between 1996 and 2006.

Young, a Republican, amended campaign-finance filings earlier this year to reflect $38,000 in payments to Allen, the Journal reported. The refunds were labeled "fundraising costs" in documents filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Young has spent more than $250,000 of his campaign contributions on legal services since he put a Washington, D.C., law firm on retainer this year, according to recent regulatory filings.

As part of a widening corruption probe, the FBI is looking closely at a 2000 construction project that more than doubled the size of Stevens' home in the ski resort community of Girdwood, about 40 miles south of Anchorage.

A contractor who did work on the house has said he was directed to send bills to Veco. The contractor said someone at the company would examine them for accuracy before sending them to Stevens, the longest serving Republican in Senate history.

"Federal agencies have conducted a broad ranging investigation in Alaska for almost a year. I believe this investigation should proceed to its conclusion without any appearance that I have attempted to influence its outcome," Stevens said in a written statement issued last week. "I will continue this policy of not commenting on this investigation until it has concluded."

"I urge Alaskans not to form conclusions based upon incomplete and sometimes incorrect reports in the media," Stevens said. "The legal process should be allowed to proceed so that all the facts can be established and the truth determined."

Allen and another former VECO executive, Rick Smith, have pleaded guilty to extortion and bribery related to their dealings with state legislators. They are said to be cooperating with investigators. No sentencing date has been set.

Three former Alaska lawmakers charged with bribery will face trial later this year.

2 oil services executives plead guilty to bribing Alaska lawmakers
LINK

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The founder of a multinational oil services company and one of his top executives have admitted illegally paying more than $400,000 to Alaska lawmakers in a widening political corruption scandal.

Bill J. Allen, chief executive of Anchorage-based VECO Corp., and Rick Smith, a vice president, pleaded guilty Monday to bribing state legislators with cash and the promise of jobs and favors for their backing on bills supported by the company.

Allen, 70, and Smith, 62, appeared separately in U.S. District Court to plead guilty to extortion, bribery, and conspiracy to impede the Internal Revenue Service.

The pleas came days after the indictment of one current and two former Republican members of the Alaska House of Representatives on federal bribery and extortion charges related to last year’s negotiations for a new oil and gas tax and a proposed natural gas pipeline that would have benefited VECO.

House Democrats on Monday asked Gov. Sarah Palin and House Speaker John Harris, R-Valdez, to consider a fall special session to review how the petroleum profits tax was approved.

The three indicted lawmakers — Rep. Vic Kohring of Wasilla and former Reps. Pete Kott of Eagle River and Bruce Weyhrauch of Juneau — have pleaded not guilty to accepting payoffs from VECO.

The FBI has said the arrests Friday stemmed from an investigation that led federal agents last summer to raid the offices of at least six lawmakers, including Kohring, Kott and Weyhrauch. Among those raided was the office of then-Senate President Ben Stevens, the son of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska.

Ben Stevens did not seek re-election last year.

No charges have been filed against the younger Stevens, who has reported collecting more than $240,000 in consulting fees from VECO since 2000.

He could not be reached Monday but his Seattle-based attorney said the former state senator is blameless.

“Ben Stevens denies he’s engaged in any criminal conduct and maintains he is innocent of any wrongdoing,” John Wolfe said.

Allen’s attorney did not return calls for comment Monday. Smith’s attorney, John Murtagh, declined comment.

Allen also pleaded guilty to issuing company bonuses to VECO executives to repay them for campaign contributions they made to politicians, then claiming those bonuses as legitimate company expenses.

“It’s an unfortunate day,” said Amy Menard, an attorney for VECO. “No company wants to find itself where VECO is at. It’s a difficult set of circumstances for any company to contend with.”

Sentencing was not immediately scheduled. The sentence recommended for both is about 10 years in prison and a fine up to $150,000, according to the plea agreement dated Wednesday and unsealed Monday.

Kott, a former House speaker, is accused of accepting $8,993 in payments, $2,750 in polling expenses and the promise of a contract as a lobbyist for VECO in exchange for his support of the proposed pipeline and a tax proposal favored by VECO, according to court documents. A version of the tax passed, but the contract for the pipeline was never approved.

Kohring is accused of demanding and accepting up to $2,600 in cash and a $3,000 job for a relative from VECO executives in exchange for his support. The indictment also alleges Kohring sought but did not receive a $17,000 loan for credit card debt.

On Monday, Kohring was stripped of his job as chairman of the House Oil & Gas Committee, though he remained a member of the panel.

“I firmly believe in the judicial system and that a jury of my peers will find me not guilty of these charges at which time the leadership of the House has agreed to return me to my chair,” Kohring said in a statement.

Weyhrauch, a 54-year-old lawyer, is charged with helping advance the oil service company’s causes for the promise of legal work.

VECO’s executives are major contributors to Republican political campaigns. The corporation, founded by Allen in 1968, also operates in Asia, the Middle East, the Caribbean and elsewhere in the U.S. and has about 4,000 employees.

Associated Press writer Steve Quinn in Juneau contributed to this report.

Web posted May 8, 2007

VECO execs plead guilty to bribery
Prosecutors say company founder, chief conspired to buy support of lawmakers

By RACHEL D'ORO
The Associated Press


VECO Corp. CEO Bill J. Allen

ANCHORAGE - Two top officers of an oil services company pleaded guilty Monday to bribing Alaska lawmakers with cash and the promise of jobs, contracts and favors for their backing on bills supported by the multinational firm.

Bill J. Allen, founder and chief executive of Anchorage-based VECO Corp., and Rick Smith, a vice president, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to extortion, bribery, and conspiracy to impede the Internal Revenue Service.

Allen's attorney did not immediately return calls for comment Monday. Smith's attorney, John Murtagh, declined comment.

Prosecutors say Smith and Allen conspired to buy the support of five state lawmakers, who are not named in charging documents.

Allen also pleaded guilty to issuing company bonuses to VECO executives to repay them for campaign contributions they made to politicians, then claiming those bonuses as legitimate company expenses.

"It's an unfortunate day," said Amy Menard, an attorney for VECO. "No company wants to find itself where VECO is at. It's a difficult set of circumstances for any company to contend with."

Sentencing was not immediately scheduled. The sentence recommended for Allen is about 10 years in prison and a fine up to $150,000, according to the plea agreement dated Wednesday and unsealed Monday.


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In exchange for Allen's cooperation, federal prosecutors agreed not to charge his son, Mark Allen, or other family members with any crimes.

The pleas came three days after federal prosecutors indicted one current and two former members of the Alaska House of Representatives on bribery and extortion charges related to last year's negotiations for a new oil and gas tax and a proposed natural gas pipeline.

The three indicted lawmakers - Rep. Vic Kohring of Wasilla and former Reps. Pete Kott of Eagle River and Bruce Weyhrauch of Juneau - pleaded not guilty Friday.

Kott, the former House speaker, is accused of accepting $8,993 in payments, $2,750 in polling expenses and the promise of a contract as a lobbyist for VECO in exchange for his support of the proposed pipeline and a tax proposal that favored VECO, according to court documents. He said he would throw his support behind the company if he was made warden of a prison the company was building in the Caribbean, according to the indictment.

The tax passed, but the contract for the pipeline negotiated by former Gov. Frank Murkowski was never approved.

VECO has said no corporate subsidiaries or other executives were involved.

Kohring is accused of demanding and accepting up to $2,600 in cash and a $3,000 job for a relative from VECO executives in exchange for his support. The indictment also alleges Kohring sought but did not receive a $17,000 loan for credit card debt.

On Monday, Kohring was stripped of his job as chairman of the House Oil and Gas Committee, though he remained a member of the panel. He issued a news release saying he agreed with the decision.

"I firmly believe in the judicial system and that a jury of my peers will find me not guilty of these charges at which time the leadership of the House has agreed to return me to my chair," Kohring said.

Weyhrauch, a 54-year-old lawyer, is charged with helping advance the oil service company's causes for the promise of legal work.

Menard said the corporation had turned over more than 100,000 pages of documents to the government.

An FBI spokesman said the arrests stemmed from an investigation that led federal agents last summer to raid the offices of at least six lawmakers, including Kohring, Kott and Weyhrauch. Also raided was the office of former Senate President Ben Stevens, the son of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens.

The younger Stevens has not been charged.

VECO Corp. is an Alaska oil field services and construction company whose executives are major contributors to Republican political campaigns. The corporation also operates in Asia, the Middle East, the Caribbean and elsewhere in the U.S.

New Gov. Sarah Palin said Saturday she would call for a review of how the previous administration and the Legislature pursued that tax structure.

Charges against Bill Allen in PDF Format.

Charges against Richard Smith in PDF Format.

LOST IN ALASKA
From: NewsInc Date: September 1, 1992

BY JEFF HOUCK

I SCANNED THE ANCHORAGE TIMES NEWSROOM FOR THE FIRST time on a freezing cold day in February 1990, three months after Bill Allen purchased the paper with money from his company, VECO International, the main cleanup contractor for the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Allen had said he bought the daily to preserve its pro-development voice as an alternative to the liberal competition. To many - including the rival Anchorage Daily News - the paper was now in the powerful oil industry's back pocket.

The popular notion was that the Times, my new employer, was the Anti-Christ of journalism, a daily press release for the hated petroleum industry. When the Times closed this summer, that belief had all but vanished, but it wasn't easy to shake.

The potential for conflict worried me less than what I saw on that first day in the newsroom. Back then you needed a microsurgeon to find the paper's pulse.

Most everyone shared a desk in the dim, vinyl-floored workspace. The innards of the outdated computers were held together literally with erasers and rubber bands. Chairs were hard to come by and the ones you could steal wouldn't roll more than an inch before toppling. The telephones didn't work very well; the reporters, hardly at all.

Paranoia ran rampant. Key editors quit in protest soon after the paper's sale, and the staffers that remained by the time of my arrival were mostly young, inexperienced reporters who bitched unceasingly and backstabbed each other in an anonymous computer file.

Almost immediately, the Daily News gossip column smeared us as 'The VECO Times,' establishing a reputation for our staff that even some of my colleagues began to believe. Times employees were liable to bow in abject reverence to the Daily News, which had won two Pulitzer prizes in less than 15 years. Meanwhile, many of us who replaced Times defectors were summarily scorned as oil industry symps or carpetbaggers looking to cash in on 'big money' Alaska.

Circulation immediately dipped to around 22,000, less than half the peak of 49,000 in the early 1980s and light years away from the Daily News's 58,000. It was not a happy time.

Things improved markedly during Allen's two-year tenure, but they hit bottom again this spring, when he bailed out and shut the place down (part of an assets-only sale to his rival). 'Bill Allen told me one time, 'People say I have $97 million and as long as I have a dime, I'll put it into this paper,' ' says Randolph Murray, the former Times editor, acidly. 'But this paper was dead before we got here.'

IT DIDN'T HELP MATTERS THAT THE Times kept shooting itself in the foot. Nowhere was this better illustrated than in a front-page series of National Geographic reprints published early in 1990 on the effects of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Our series included before-and-after photos of a beach cleanup site - without revealing that Exxon itself had provided the photos.

Though the Times eventually did a mea culpa, the damage had already been done. The staff was demoralized and one reporter nearly quit in disgust after a squabble consumed a news meeting. Allen's VECO had perverted the Times, people were convinced - though few remembered the paper was just as politically charged (if not more so) under the previous regime. It was former publisher Bob Atwood, after all, who had dismissed the spill as a 'nondisaster' just a few short months before the paper's sale to Allen and VECO.

It also stung when we attempted our first hardnosed series on the plight of poverty-stricken Eskimo whalers. Spectacular photos and sharp, compelling copy filled the front page on day one. But the impact was blunted when the metro section, on the same day, led with a large color photo featuring Bill Allen, Anchorage Mayor Tom Fink, and Alaska Governor Walter Hickel - all adorned in red Anchorage Times jackets - fresh from a ride in Allen's hot-air balloon.

I had always considered the ownership question a petty matter, and I certainly never blamed Bill Allen for the blunders. I saw Allen in the newsroom just four times during his two-year stint - once to celebrate a staff member's birthday, once to watch TV coverage of the Los Angeles riots, once to name Murray as editor, and a last time this summer, when he announced that the Daily News had bought us out, and we'd be shut down. I personally do not feel he knew enough about the workings of a newspaper to be able to snow us into printing his ideas verbatim on the news pages.

But at no time did the paper's baggage become heavier than when I was assigned to cover the oil spill's first anniversary by travelling to three Prince William Sound towns.

In the small Native village of Tatitlek, the mayor leaned back in his chair while smoking a cigarette and smiled righteously at my request for an interview. He chuckled a bit and puffs of smoke billowed from his nostrils. 'The Veeeeeco Times,' he sneered.

Along the docks in the fishing village of Cordova, I heard the same chorus. A Times newspaper box near the marina was fully stocked with papers from March 23, 1989 - the day before the oil spill a full year earlier.

And in Valdez, the terminus of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, one woman chided me as I tried to interview her outside a theater where a documentary of the spill was being shown. 'Shame on you,' she said. 'You should know better than to take oil money. Shame on you.'

THAT IS NOT TO SAY THE DEATH OF THE Times was predisposed, but many considered it a small miracle that the paper hadn't sunk into Alaska's midnight sunset under Atwood, the owner for 54 years who used the paper to push hard for statehood back in the 1950s. Atwood carried a big stick through the 1970s, a stick big enough to have squashed the financially plagued Daily News.

Instead of going for the kill, though, he agreed in 1974 to a joint operating agreement that kept the 28-year-old Daily News alive. The JOA went down in flames four years later after owner Kay Fanning sued Atwood for allegedly violating the agreement. Atwood settled the suit for $750,000 in September 1978; the papers divorced shortly, and Fanning sold to McClatchy within the year.

The California-based chain poured in millions of dollars, professionalized the Daily News staff, increased circulation, and began grabbing a significant market share, all of which left the Times unfazed. Perhaps Atwood's biggest mistake was to keep to a p.m. publishing schedule, despite staff urgings, ceding mornings to the Daily News. He was convinced Alaskans didn't want to read their news in the morning during the long, dark winter months.

The morning Daily News overtook the afternoon Times in circulation by the mid-1980s and never looked back. Alaska modernized but Atwood and the Times slipped slowly toward becoming the state's largest anachronism. That eventually cost Anchorage its oldest newspaper.

Sure, Allen converted the paper to morning delivery soon after his purchase, improved the paper's quality, and poured an estimated $700,000 to $800,000 each month into the business. The newsroom staff doubled to nearly 100, the building was refurbished, and a rubber-band free, $700,000 computer system was installed. Our initiatives caused the Daily News to pull out all the stops, too, and touched off a newspaper war of the Great American sort. Murray and his counterpart, Daily News editor Howard Weaver, estimate the papers lost a combined $50 million in the fight.

For the Times, it was too little too late.

IN THE FINAL MONTHS, THE COMBINATION of Allen's cash and the improvements in the paper's reporting, appearance, and delivery converted the bunker-like atmosphere to that of a scrappy underdog. The news pages, once dominated by gray wire copy, swelled with aggressive, better-assembled pieces about Anchorage issues and events - a Daily News weakness.

The year before the shutdown, our news staff beat the crosstown rival on at least two local stories each day. The opinion pages continued to be pro-development and pro-oil, but the nagging 'VECO Times' label began to peel away in readers' eyes when it came to local coverage. And the crowded display advertising market, which had been as lopsided as 70/30 in favor of the Daily News in 1989, began 1992 almost dead even.

Momentum was with us in a journalistic sense and, at least partially, in a business sense.

'They couldn't beat us, so they bought us,' Times managing editor Paul Jenkins told us on June 2, two days shy of the Times's 77th birthday. It was a great, final rallying cry.

McClatchy had won the war, and took almost no prisoners (just a handful of the 400-plus Times staffers found homes over there). They did, however, land a strange spoil. Much to the dismay of the Daily News, the Times still survives in an abbreviated format. Part of the sale agreement provides Allen with a half-page of space opposite the Daily News's liberal editorial page to express a conservative viewpoint for the next 10 years.

The animosity between staffers at the two papers lives on as well. One month after the sale, Daily News metro columnist Michael Doogan attacked the Times's half-page of space as 'a bark without a dog.' Jenkins brushed off the Times's cannon and shot back. 'We've got a dog, Mike,' Jenkins wrote. 'Yours. Each and every day.' Though not quite the genuine pugilism of the past two years, their squabbles stand as a reminder of what news competition had meant. And what - if only - it could have continued to mean.

'Next year would have been our zenith,' Jerry Cox, my former city editor, told me recently. I tend to agree. And then he added an irrefutable truth. 'It will be hard to go away from all that energy and go into any other newsroom,' he said. 'It just won't be the same.'

So, call it 'The VECO Times,' if you will. As Randolph Murray said at our closing party: 'That's the one thing I'm most proud of: No one has a reason to hang their heads.'

After leaving Anchorage, Jeff Houck returned to Florida and is now Gainesville bureau chief for the Florida Times Union.

From Betsy Combier July 31, 2007: The shareholders of The Wall Street Journal are voting right now on the sale of the paper to media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Ted Stevens & Corruption: Move Over Duke Cunningham
8/24/06
LINK

Kodiak, Alaska - The Anchorage Daily News ran a story titled, "Attorney selection steams Stevens." The appointment of Nelson Cohen as the new United States Attorney General for Alaska has greatly upset U.S. Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK). Ted's probably upset for good reasons: Adak Pollock, real estate deals, earmarks, and legislative end-runs in fisheries management and rights allocations (crab rationalization and other nefarious giveaways).

Cohen was the chief of the White Collar Crime Division when he served as the assistant attorney general for the United States in Pennsylvania.

For many years, Groundswell has been asking federal special agents from multiple agencies for assistance in ensuring that Alaska gets a new US AG who is not part of the Alaska crony and political damage control system. We suspected something was seriously wrong when former U.S. attorney general Timothy Burgess failed to prosecute the Adak Crab Allocation perjury charges, after Larry Davison and I filed a federal petition in 2003. And amazingly, Burgess soon got a judgeship.

Anytime Burgess wants to provide answers to this situation, he can start (please) by answering publicly "Why did the US AG office fail to prosecute the Adak Crab Allocation perjury and the multiple counts?" And, "Why, once the federal agents found the plan in writing to break through the crab caps, did the US AG office not prosecute Dr. Terry L. Leitzell, chief counsel for Icicle Seafoods?"

An earlier Groundswell article mentions Burgess' close association with Alaska's powerful Republicans, and how crooked we feel those powerhouse players have been. No wonder Ted is deeply upset that the White House has begun to correct that "inside" bias, and ensure that Ted Stevens is no longer "in control of" the Justice department here, too. It's enough he headed the fourth branch of government, Appropriations, and still runs the Senate Commerce show.

Our Writ of Mandamus, an extraordinary writ to command the National Marine Fisheries Service's general counsel office to properly handle a perjury (false testimony) before the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council was filed on January 13, 2003, in the Western District of the United States Court in Seattle, Washington. We served the pro se (we wrote it and filed it) writ (for injunctive relief) on then U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft in Washington D.C.

The NOAA Office of Law Enforcement soon began a criminal investigation regarding Adak. Eventually, the largest fine in NOAA history was levied against Icicle Seafoods, Adak Fisheries and related parties, yet the $3.44 million Notice of Violation and Assessment has still not been finalized. We are awaiting word from the government, after an appeal occurred this past January before an administrative judge, in Seattle. What was remarkable, though, was the number of counts left on the table when only the crab cap violation (breaking rules under the American Fisheries Act) was handled. And you've read from John Enge's pieces that crab fishermen have talked with federal agents who were upset, too, that the other counts went nowhere.

Here's a reminder of how to properly deal with institutionalized corruption: "March 3, 2006, SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- Former GOP Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham was sentenced Friday to eight years and four months in federal prison for taking $2.4 million in bribes from at least three defense contractors. "House Speaker and fellow Republican Dennis Hastert issued a statement after Cunningham's sentencing stating that he hopes the congressman's prison term sends "a strong message" that nobody is above the law. "It is my hope that Congressman Cunningham will spend his incarceration thinking long and hard about how he broke the trust of the voters that elected him and those on Capitol Hill who served with him," Hastert said."

Groundswell's advice is that Ted should be out buying new stationary, and the return address should say Cellblock 666, Leavenworth County, Kansas.

See Writ here

Stephen Taufen - Groundswell Fisheries Movement:
A public watchdog and advocate for fishermen and their coastal communities. Taufen is an "insider" who blew the whistle on the international profit laundering between global affiliates of North Pacific seafood companies, who use illicit accounting to deny the USA the proper taxes on seafood trade. The same practices are used to lower ex-vessel prices to the fleets, and to bleed monies from our regional economy. Contact Stephen Taufen

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