Bill Allen of Veco Pleads Guilty

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MONDAY, MAY 7, 2007
WWW.USDOJ.GOV
CRM
(202) 514-2007
TDD (202) 514-1888
Chief Executive Officer and Vice President of
VECO Corporation Plead Guilty to Corruption and Tax Charges

WASHINGTON – Bill J. Allen, chief executive officer and part-owner of VECO Corporation, and Richard L. Smith, vice president of community affairs and government relations of VECO Corporation, have pleaded guilty to providing more than $400,000 in corrupt payments to public officials from the state of Alaska, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division announced today.

Allen and Smith each pleaded guilty at hearings in federal court today in Anchorage, Alaska, to a three-count information charging them with: bribery; conspiracy to commit bribery, extortion under color of official right, and honest services mail and wire fraud; and conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service of the U.S. Department of Treasury. In filed court documents, Allen and Smith each admitted to conspiring with five current and former members of the Alaska Legislature – identified in court documents as State Representative A, State Representative B, State Representative C, State Senator A, and State Senator B – to provide illegal financial benefits to multiple Alaska elected officials in exchange for those officials’ support on legislation pending before the Alaska State Legislature. Allen and Smith also pleaded guilty to one substantive count of bribery, and admitted that they provided greater than $400,000 in benefits to public officials from the state of Alaska in connection with the scheme.
click herefor the rest of the Justice Department statement.


OK, State Reps A, B, and C have already been arrested. The Anchorage Daily News writes this afternoon:

"But enough information is given in the Allen charges about most of the anonymous players
to figure out who they probably are.
The one exception is Senator A, about whom little data is offered and whose identity remains obscured.
Senator B is described as being part of a conspiracy in which Allen and Smith say they paid him "for giving advice, lobbying colleagues and taking official acts in matters before the Legislature."
One former senator matches the description of Senator B: former Senate President Ben Stevens.

They also say that the deal Bill Allen made in exchange for cooperation was that his son and other members of his family will not be indicted.

This is a big day in Alaska politics. Bill Allen and Veco have had significant influence on the Alaska legislature for years now. Will this convince the The Anchorage Daily News to drop their half page unpaid daily advertising for Veco?* Will Alaska Pacific University change the name of Veco Drive on their campus? Will legislators AND MORE IMPORTANT, will citizens behave better in the future? I wouldn't hold my breath, but this is definitely a teachable moment. For those who believed in the candidates who have been indicted - will they be more questioning in the future? Or will they still be seduced by sweet talkers whose focus groups have told them what words to use to push their emotional buttons? Or will they not distinguish between the corrupt and the honest and just condemn all politics?

Alaska Robotics'video suggests a way to prevent private companies from biying our legislators - the public buys them first! Check it out.