Another prominent Alaska public official was indicted yesterday.  Alaska has been a hot bed of corruption and federal investigations, which is why the Anchorage Daily News wonders who is next?

The indictment of state Sen. John Cowdery culminates another investigation of a public official targeted in federal raids, subpoenas and wiretaps in Alaska over the last two years.

But what of the far more powerful and prominent elected officials also in the sights of the FBI, IRS and other federal agencies, men like U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, his son Ben, and U.S. Rep. Don Young?

Ben Stevens, the former Alaska Senate president, was probably the best known among those whose legislative offices were searched in a series of raids on Aug. 31, 2006. Nearly a year later, the FBI and IRS searched Ted Stevens' home in Girdwood, in part to document an extensive addition built by Veco Corp. employees and contractors. Young is also under investigation for his ties to Veco and for an earmark he sponsored for a Florida highway interchange sought by a key campaign contributor.

Ben and Ted Stevens and Young say they have done nothing wrong, and federal prosecutors and agents won't say where their investigations are going or when they might get there.

Today's Anchorage Daily News provides an update of the ongoing public corruption investigations involving key figures from Alaska:

• Veco's relationship with state legislators. During trials, the Veco executives described bribing or otherwise exerting improper influence over several officials. Among them: former Senate President Ben Stevens, whom Veco officials admitted paying more than $240,000 in phony consulting contracts to act on the company's behalf in the Legislature.

• U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens. FBI and IRS agents performed an extensive search of Stevens' Girdwood home in July, and ex-Veco CEO Bill Allen testified in former Rep. Pete Kott's trial that company employees oversaw and provided labor for an extensive remodeling there. The government is also investigating some of his legislation that benefited his son or former staff members.

• U.S. Rep. Don Young. In Alaska, Young has been reported to be under scrutiny for ties to Veco and others over his use of earmarks. Veco executives are his largest group of political donors. One of Young's top aides pleaded guilty last year in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, which is still being investigated. And last week, Congress asked the Justice Department to investigate one of Don Young's earmarks, $10 million for an interchange in Florida that would benefit one of his campaign donors. Young has reported spending more than $1 million in campaign funds for legal fees since last year as the investigations of his actions mount.

• Fisheries. A number of companies involved with the North Pacific fishing industry received subpoenas from federal investigators asking about their dealings with Ben Stevens (who worked as a consultant in the industry), his ex-partner Trevor McCabe (an ex-aide to Sen. Ted Stevens), the Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board (created by Ted Stevens to award federal grants earmarked by Stevens for the industry and chaired for a time by Ben). CIRI, the regional Alaska Native corporation in Anchorage that once had Ben Stevens as a consultant, was also subpoenaed in the investigation, though its officials declined to say what evidence was sought.

Yet another development in the on-going federal investigation of Alaska's senior Senator, Ted Stevens (R).  The Associated Press is reporting that the investigation now includes the fishing industry:

Federal authorities investigating Sen. Ted Stevens are trolling the Alaska fishing industry for evidence of whether the powerful Republican pushed seafood legislation that benefited his lobbyist son.

So far, the most public aspect of the investigation was the FBI raid on Stevens' home in July, with agents seeking evidence of the senator's relationship with a corrupt Alaska oil contractor.

But authorities have also quietly amassed evidence about fishing.

After serving subpoenas throughout the industry last year, investigators recently returned to Seattle, home to many of the boats and processors that bring Alaska's seafood to market.

Industry officials and attorneys involved in the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity because authorities have told them not to discuss the probe, said investigators are asking about federal legislation that directly or indirectly aided the senator's son, Ben, who is a state lobbyist and politician.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Joel Connelly blogs at the SeattlePI.com about "Bribing Ben Stevens."  What a tangled web they've woven in Alaska.  It's a web that federal prosecutors are working through -- and that probably doesn't bode well for Ben Stevens, the former State Senate President, or his father, the current U.S. Senator:

The former boss of Alaska's big VECO oil service company yesterday told an Anchorage trial that he bribed three former Alaska state legislators, most prominently ex-state Senate President Ben Stevens.

Stevens is the son of Alaska's U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, who is under investigation by the FBI. The FBI is probing VECO's role in the remodeling of the elder Stevens' home in Girdwood, south of Anchorage.

Ex-VECO CEO Bill Allen testified in the federal corruption trial of former legislator Pete Kott. Allen and former VECO vice president Rick Smith have pleaded guilty to bribery and conspiracy, and are cooperating with federal prosecutors.

Allen testified that he bribed Ben Stevens and two ex-legislators, Kott and Vic Kohring, but did not give details. Ben Stevens remains under federal investigation and has not yet been charged with a crime.

Kott is charged with sending a false invoice to Allen for $7,993, which was used to hire Kott's son to manage his reelection campaign. Kott is accused of accepting a check for $1,000 to reimburse him for donating the same amount to Alaska's then-Gov. Frank Murkowski.

The sums are chump change compared to payments made by VECO to Ben Stevens. According to papers filed by federal prosecutors, the junior Stevens took $243,000 from Allen.

Connelly does a very good job of untangling the connections. Definitely worth a read because this scandal is far from over. 

Breaking news courtesy of the Anchorage Daily News:

The former head of one of Alaska's largest oil field service companies admitted in court Thursday to bribing three former Alaska lawmakers, including former Senate President Ben Stevens, the son of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens.

Former Veco Corp. CEO Bill Allen, 70, testified Thursday in the federal corruption trial of another former lawmaker, Pete Kott. Allen and a former company vice president, Rick Smith, have pleaded guilty to bribing lawmakers and are awaiting sentencing.

On the stand Thursday, Allen said he bribed Ben Stevens, Kott and Vic Kohring but did not elaborate during 15 minutes of testimony. Ben Stevens is under federal investigation but has not been charged.

The Anchorage Daily News compiled a one-stop Q & A on the corruption scandals swirling around a number of the Alaska's elected officials.  It provides a good background on the players -- and the potential crimes.  Here's one key section that should be of interest:

Others connected with the investigations

- U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens. He has represented Alaska since 1968 and is the most senior Senate Republican in history. Stevens has come under political attack recently from fiscal conservatives and others for his use of earmarks to direct programs and money to Alaska. Some of the earmarks benefited his son Ben and a former aide, Trevor McCabe, and their clients. Veco’s Allen oversaw a construction project in 2000 that doubled the size of Stevens’ Girdwood home, and investigators have been trying to learn if at least some of that work was an improper gift.

- Former state Sen. Ben Stevens. In his plea agreement, Allen admitted making improper payments of $243,250 to “State Senator B” — an unmistakable reference to Ben Stevens, the former state Senate president. Ben Stevens’ office was searched in the August 2006 raids and was later visited again by FBI agents seeking information about his fishery interests and benefits he may have received from legislation written by his father. He was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars as a consultant for various commercial fishing companies and groups, and chaired a federally funded panel, created in an earmark by his father, that awarded grants to some of those entities.

- U.S. Rep. Don Young. Alaska’s sole U.S. representative since 1973, Young has been widely reported to be under investigation over his own ties to Veco and use of earmarks, although details of what is being examined are unclear. Since 1989, he has received more than $212,000 in campaign donations from Allen, Smith and other Veco executives, making the company by far his top contributor. One of Young’s aides has pleaded guilty in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, and Young himself has ties to the lobbyist. Young has come under political attack for adding earmarks to transportation legislation that would benefit a Wisconsin trucking company and a Florida real estate mogul, both of whom contributed to his campaigns. Young recently reported spending $262,000 in campaign funds on unspecified legal fees during the first six months of 2007.

- Trevor McCabe. Seward native and former legislative director to Ted Stevens, he became partner in a consulting business with Ben Stevens, and lobbied Congress on behalf of a Southeast salmon group that obtained federal funds from Ted Stevens. An attorney and lobbyist, McCabe has represented other seafood interests as well. With two partners, McCabe sold property to the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward at a price substantially above its appraisal after Ted Stevens provided the money in an earmark.

- Frank Prewitt. Former state corrections commissioner who became a consultant to Cornell Cos., a private prison company that wanted to build a large prison in Alaska (at one time teaming with Veco). Prewitt was being investigated by the FBI in 2004 when he agreed to work for the government to root out corrupt legislators and lobbyists. He passed out money and recorded conversations, providing the foundation for the Anderson case.

- Sens. John Cowdery, R-Anchorage, and Donald Olson, D-Nome, also had their offices searched in August 2006, but have not been charged.

 

Today, the New York Times profiles the controversy surrounding Alaska's senior Senator, Ted Stevens, and provides a concise explanation of the situation unfolding:

Questions have arisen about the senator’s ties to a former Alaska oil industry executive and about renovations to Mr. Stevens’s home here as part of a wide-ranging public corruption inquiry in Alaska by the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The investigation has exposed improper links between an oil-field services company, VECO, and lawmakers in the State Legislature, including Mr. Stevens’s son, Ben, the former president of the State Senate.

The former executive, Bill J. Allen, who was the chief executive of VECO, pleaded guilty last month to bribery and other charges. Mr. Allen acknowledged then that the $243,250 that VECO paid to Ben Stevens from 2002 to 2006 for supposed consulting work while he was in the State Senate was instead to pay for “giving advice, lobbying colleagues and taking official acts in matters before the Legislature,” according to an outline of the plea.

Three former state lawmakers and one current one have been indicted. Ben Stevens has not been charged with a crime, but the investigation continues and appears to be expanding. Last week, investigators asked neighbors of Senator Ted Stevens in Girdwood what they knew about a major renovation of his house in 2000. According to the contractor who did most of the work, the project was largely overseen by Mr. Allen, although the senator and his wife, Catherine, wrote checks to pay the bills.

“It looks so bad,” the contractor, Augie Paone, said of the scrutiny of the senator. “But he just happens to be in a bad spot right now because Bill Allen is in a bad spot.”

The elder Mr. Stevens, a Republican, has strong ties to Mr. Allen. Along with several other men, they jointly bought a racehorse, So Long Birdie, and they sometimes dine together at the Double Musky Inn in Girdwood, a New Orleans-style restaurant owned by another member of the horse racing group, Bob Persons.

VECO has long been active in state and federal politics, and Mr. Allen was once forced to register as a lobbyist because he spent so much time at the Capitol in Juneau.

It is unclear whether Mr. Stevens’s actions are a central focus of the investigation or if they are under scrutiny for clues they might provide about the actions of others, including his son. A spokesman for the F.B.I. in Anchorage, Eric Gonzalez, declined to comment.

Yesterday, we reported on the indictments of three Alaska state legislators for bribery. We noted that the FBI had been investigating former State Senate President Ben Stevens. Ben is the son of U.S. Senator Ted Stevens. New reports from Alaska today indicate that Ben Stevens was implicated in a guilty plea from an oil company executive.

Federal authorities have not announced any action against former Senate President Ben Stevens, but there is little doubt he is the man referred to in VECO Corporation part-owner and CEO Bill Allen's indictment as "State Senator B." Those documents describe him as a man whose income from VECO vastly eclipses others charged in the corruption case.

The court filing, "the Factual Basis for Plea Against Bill Allen," said "State Senator B," was a senator from 2001 to 2006 and someone who was paid consulting fees by VECO.

It all points to Stevens.

The amount of consulting fees -- $243,000 -- correlates with the amounts in Stevens' financial disclosure filings.

In the court documents, Allen acknowledges that in actuality the payments provided to the senator were in exchange or giving advice, lobbying colleagues, and taking officials acts in matters before the legislature.