Prison time sought for key figure in Alaska corruption
Published Thursday, October 22, 2009
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Stumble It!ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Federal prosecutors say the former chief executive of a company that did construction work for oil companies should be sentenced to nearly four years in prison for offering bribes in exchange for legislation favorable to the petroleum industry.
The government's recommendation was filed late Wednesday, a week before Bill Allen, 72, and another VECO executive are scheduled to be sentenced for their 2007 guilty pleas to conspiracy, bribery and tax charges.
"The actions of Bill Allen were corrupt, sustained, and damaging to the integrity of the legislative process," prosecutors said in the filing obtained by the Anchorage Daily News.
In a separate filing, prosecutors recommended a 3½-year prison sentence for Rick Smith, 64, a former vice president of VECO, an Anchorage-based company that performed maintenance, construction and design work for oil companies.
Lawyers for Allen and Smith have asked for much lighter prison sentences, pointing out the pair worked extensively with the FBI and prosecutors, testifying at trials and giving detailed evidence in multiple debriefings about their illegal activities. They also recorded phone calls at the government's request to elicit admissions from politicians.
The sentencing recommendations were accompanied by documents filed by prosecutors and defense attorneys. Some of the paperwork involved U.S. Rep. Don Young, who has been known for more than two years to be under investigation by federal authorities.
Allen and Smith admitted breaking federal campaign finance laws on Young's behalf, using corporate funds to pay the expenses of a yearly fundraiser from 1993 to 2006. The illegal corporate donations were not reported.
The total spent by VECO over the years was between $130,000 and $195,000.
Young has denied wrongdoing. His campaign has spent more than $1 million on his legal expenses.
Allen was the lead witness in the trial of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens. Allen and Smith testified during the trials of former House speaker Pete Kott, R-Eagle River, and former Rep. Vic Kohring, R-Wasilla.
Charges against Stevens were tossed when the Justice Department admitted it failed to turn over evidence favorable to the defense prior to trial. The same issue has led to the release of Kott and Kohring from prison while a judge decides whether to dismiss charges or order new trials.
Prosecutors said their sentencing recommendations don't take into consideration anything involving Young or Stevens, only the state legislators mentioned in Allen's 2007 charging document.
"The defendant was the pivotal figure in a conspiracy that lasted from 2002 to 2006, which included a series of corrupt acts that were designed to, and did, influence the Alaska legislature," prosecutors said.
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Community Discussion
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Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me.
But Allen and Smith, by turning Fed witness and co-operating, did enable some of the urgently needed house cleaning of both our State and Fed. representatives. I doubt it would/could have happened without their co-operation, at least not nearly as extensively.
So I guess I can live with the deal.
Now I'd really like the Feds to keep going. There's still Ben Stevens, and others and the whole Fisheries mess that has stunk up that area for quite a while. Not to mention Ben's $300,000+ year as a 'consultant' for the Special Olympics.
And there's Don Young, where it seems Allen and Smith may still have a function to serve. And I'm pretty sure Veco is not alone in having shared the blankets in that bed. Young has become a very ugly representative of the "Alaskan way of doing business", nation wide.
And there are older, uglier, messes that began back in the days of ANWR and other lands settlements, still on-going, used as a means of buying influence and support for [some] Alaskan interests within the Fed. gov't. I'd dearly love to see that abcess opened to the air and cleaned out.
A bunch more house-cleaning is in order, and, by all other indications involving 'cooperative witnesses,' is still to come, Pearl.
The wheeling and dealing involved in giving away of others' legacies and resources is still present in Juneau and D.C. A complete 'transfusion' hasn't sufficiently occurred yet to drive a stake thorugh the heart of the beast, but there's very likely more on the way. They haven't played half of the cards in the deck yet.
Trevor McCabe and Benny haven't spent much time in the press yet, and my best hunch os that there's more folks cooperating at this time than Don's former aid, Murkie's former Chief of Staff, (Jim Clarke), and the VECO twins.
Fisheries ear-marks, Seward Sea Life Center, base housing, the Park Service building, and much more.
I look forward to the day when a politico in D.C. or Juneau even -considers- selling others' rights or possessions for partisan or personal gain, they leave a serious mess in their shorts just thinking about the potential ramifications of being caught in such swindling..
46 months as reported in Anchorage paper is a joke! He'd better get more like 46 years.
My bets are on probation with , no jail time .
he who has the gold rules. bet allen does no jail time. enough said.
ahhhhh, more public-CAN corruption......no need to reign in business....let free markets decide, or should that be bribe???
I thought Sarah was the one that cleaned up the corruption in Alaska.
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