Alaska GOP Sen. Ted Stevens, a king of pork barrel politics, is under investigation for taking bribes from an oil-services company.
FBI and IRS agents searched Stevens’ palatial vacation enclave home in Girdwood, Alaska, and seized an undisclosed records.
Agents want to know more about Stevens’ ties to VECO, an oil service company where two executives recently admitted paying $400,000 in bribes to Alaskan lawmakers.
Law enforcement sources say Stevens received bribes from the company.
Reports Reuters:
The FBI and IRS have searched the home of Republican Sen. Ted Stevens in a ski resort in Alaska as part of an investigation into his links with an oil-services company, officials said on Monday.
“All I can really say is we are conducting a search at the residence. We can’t go any deeper into detail than that,” said Dave Heller, spokesman for the FBI in Anchorage.
The FBI and IRS entered the senator’s Girdwood, Alaska home in the early afternoon with a search warrant. Television and news media swarmed the two-story alpine ski lodge in the shadow of Mt. Alyeska while agents combed the grounds.
The longest-serving Republican in U.S Senate history, known for delivering billions of federal dollars to his home state, Stevens in a statement said: “My attorneys were advised this morning that federal agents wished to search my home in Girdwood in connection with an ongoing investigation.
“I continue to believe this investigation should proceed to its conclusion without any appearance that I have attempted to influence the outcome,” it said.
Girdwood is about 40 miles south of Anchorage, the state’s largest city. The vacation enclave is nestled between Turnagain Arm, a glacial-fed body of water, and densely forested mountains.
Stevens, 83, is the subject of a grand-jury investigation into his links with managers of VECO Corp., the state’s largest oil-services company, as well as numerous unrelated fisheries matters.
In May, Bill Allen, then the chief executive of VECO, along with a vice president, Rick Smith, pleaded guilty to several federal corruption charges. The two admitted paying over $400,000 to bribe Alaskan lawmakers.
Allen had been a financial supporter of Stevens’ campaigns and a partner with him on a race horse. He also oversaw a project to remodel Stevens’ Girdwood home in 2000, vetting bills and construction work.
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