Execs of oilfield services company Veco plead guilty to bribing Alaska lawmakers

Energy Pipeline News, the Atlanta-based newsletter that covers the oil and natural gas pipeline business worldwide, has been covering corruption charges leveled against Alaska legislators.

[ClickPress, Sun Jun 03 2007] You don’t have to go all the way to Anchorage or Juneau, Alaska, to get the latest news on what’s happening. Energy Pipeline News, one of the two flagship newsletters published by Anvil Publishers in Atlanta covers the energy pipeline beat with both daily and fortnightly coverage.
Among the stories covered in the current issue involves two top executives of oilfield service firm Veco, who on May 7 entered guilty pleas to bribery and other charges.
Veco Chief Executive Bill Allen and Rick Smith, Veco’s vice president of community and government affairs, entered guilty pleas in federal court in Anchorage to charges of extortion, bribery and conspiracy to impede the Internal Revenue Service.
They admitted to bribing Alaska lawmakers with cash and the promise of jobs, contracts and favors for their backing of bills supported by Veco.
Federal prosecutors say Smith and Allen conspired to buy the support of five state lawmakers.
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.
The sentencing recommendation for Allen is between nine and 11 years in prison and a fine between $15,000 and $150,000, according to the plea agreement unsealed May 7.
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 are Rep. Vic Kohring of Wasilla and former Reps. Pete Kott of Eagle River and Bruce Weyhrauch of Juneau. They pleaded not guilty on May 4.
Kohring, Kott and Weyhrauch are variously charged with extortion, wire fraud, mail fraud and bribery in connection with the Legislature’s consideration of an oil tax bill and then-Gov. Frank Murkowski’s natural gas pipeline proposal last year.
In a press release issued in Washington, D.C., on May 4, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher said the indictments accuse the three defendants of selling “their offices in Alaska’s state House to an influential energy company in exchange for cash payments, loans, jobs for relatives and the promise of future employment. … We will work hard to bring to justice elected officials who betray their duty to their constituents.”

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