[NYTr] Corruption: The Bribing Oil Exec

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Rick Kissell

Associated Press - Aug 5, 2007
(no URL supplied)

Ex-Oil Magnate Sowed Political Influence

By JEANNETTE J. LEE
Associated Press Writer

ANCHORAGE, Alaska --- The former head of the oil field services company 
VECO Corp. was once a model of political clout.

>From the halls of Congress to the Alaska capital city of Juneau, Bill   
Allen spent more than two decades throwing lavish fundraisers for 
favored candidates, sending them generous campaign contributions and 
lobbying hard for the oil and gas industry.

But Allen's seemingly unshakable influence ended abruptly this year when 
the founder and then-chairman of VECO pleaded guilty to bribing state 
legislators.

Now, he appears to be the link between at least three investigations of 
Alaska politicians by the Department of Justice, the FBI and the 
Internal Revenue Service.

Two influential members of Alaska's congressional delegation, Sen. Ted 
Stevens and Rep. Don Young, both Republicans, are under investigation 
for their relationships with VECO. And three former Republican state 
legislators have been indicted since December for accepting bribes from 
Allen and other high-ranking VECO officers. Stevens' son, Ben, former 
president of the state senate, also is under investigation for ties to 
VECO but has not been charged.

The multimillion-dollar company is the largest oil field services firm 
on Alaska's lucrative North Slope, the nation's most productive oil 
field, and until the federal probes surfaced last year it was one of the 
state's biggest campaign donors. Oil is the cornerstone of Alaska's 
economy and funds about 80 percent of the state's annual budget.

Allen and other VECO officials were known for their campaign fundraisers 
at the swank Petroleum Club in Anchorage. And they have given hundreds 
of thousands of dollars in campaign donations to Stevens, Young and a 
host of state lawmakers.

"They were a very important source of money to some of the more pro-oil 
company candidates," said state Rep. Les Gara, an Anchorage Democrat. 
"Without VECO's involvement in state politics, we'll have a much more 
level playing field."

Court documents say Allen and Rick Smith, former company vice president, 
met politicians in Juneau's Baranof Hotel to discuss the exchange of 
bribes for votes on key oil and gas legislation. Smith has also pleaded 
guilty to bribery charges.

Company executives, led by Allen, also lobbied on behalf of oil 
producers on the North Slope, the largest of which are BP PLC, Exxon 
Mobil Corp. and ConocoPhillips.

"We discovered that there really wasn't anybody -- not even the oil 
companies -- defending themselves on the political front," VECO 
President Pete Leathard told the Anchorage Daily News in 2005. "So we 
took on the task."

Allen routinely urged employees to vote for candidates who would push 
for oil and gas exploration. In a company newsletter before the 2004 
presidential election, he wrote that Democrats were tied to "extreme 
environmental groups" that wanted to "shut down Alaska and preserve it 
as a national park."

He expounded on his political views as publisher of Voice of the Times, 
a conservative editorial column embedded in the editorial page of the 
Anchorage Daily News. The unusual arrangement was intended to maintain 
diverse viewpoints after Allen's rival paper, The Anchorage Times, 
folded in 1992. The Daily News did not renew the Times' contract after 
it expired in May.

While Allen was exercising his political clout, VECO won most of the 
large construction jobs on the North Slope in the mid-1980s, and was the 
lead contractor on the multibillion-dollar cleanup of the 1989 Exxon 
Valdez oil spill.

VECO also has won tens of millions of dollars worth of federal 
contracts. The value of those contracts jumped after the elder Stevens, 
the longest-serving Republican in Senate history, became chairman of the 
Appropriations Committee in 1997.

Allen and Stevens are longtime friends and share ownership in a 
racehorse. Federal investigators are looking into Allen's involvement in 
renovating Stevens' home in Girdwood in 2000.

Allen stepped down after his guilty plea in May, although his family 
still owns a majority of the company and his daughter, Tammy Kerrigan, 
is chairwoman. He has kept a low profile since then and is cooperating 
with the investigation.

There was no response to calls seeking comment from Allen and his 
lawyer, Robert Bundy.

"He's completely separated from the company," said VECO attorney, Amy 
Menard. "He has no relationship to the company, no management 
involvement and no role in its operation." VECO is cooperating with the 
federal investigations, Menard said.