ADN Story: Fed's Eye [Ted] Stevens' Home Remodel

Someone said the other day that there are so many FBI agents in Anchorage working on the investigations of corruption that they keep bumping into each other.

Today the Anchorage Daily News (ADN) published another episode in the unfolding story - this is the first one that directly names the senior Republican US Senator Ted Stevens. Rich Mauer writes among other things:

How the Girdwood home fits in with the broader investigation, or what possible crimes are being investigated, is not clear. There was a brief, unexplained reference to residential remodeling in the government's statement of facts that accompanied Allen's and Smith's guilty pleas. The sentence, preceded by a listing of a dozen Veco-related enterprises around the world, said: "Veco was not in the business of residential construction or remodeling."

Asked whether that line related to the construction at Stevens' Girdwood home, Persons first said, "I'm sure it does." When pressed, he said he wasn't certain.

Bill Allen and Rick Smith are the two VECO, a key oil-field services company that has made significant political contributions, executives who have confessed to bribery, extortion and other misdeeds that were captured on tape in their Juneau hotel suite last year. One sitting and two very recent state legislators have been indicted and two state senators are mentioned in the indictments as Senators A and B. These are generally assumed to be John Cowdery and Ben Stevens, Ted's son.

Person's is a Stevens friend and neighbor who oversaw the construction while Stevens was in DC.

Augie Paone, owner of Christensen Builders Inc. of Anchorage, said in a recent interview that it was Bill Allen who hired him to complete the framing and most of the interior carpentry at Stevens' home. Before he could send a bill to Stevens for work in progress, he was directed to provide it first to Veco, where someone would examine it for accuracy, he said. When Veco approved the invoice, he would fax it to the Stevenses in Washington, he said.

Paone said that as far as he knew, Stevens and his wife, Catherine, paid his bills themselves. He said he sent at least $100,000 in invoices to the Stevenses in Washington. They paid him from what he said appeared to be a checking account opened for the project. The checks, imprinted with the couple's names, had single- and double-digit serial numbers, he said.

The project involved jacking up the existing one story house and building a new foundation and new first floor and then lowering the original house onto the newly built first floor. But there were problems in the construction.

Paone said he was called in late that summer to rescue the project.

"Bill Allen and some of the Veco boys, some of the Veco guys, were the ones that approached me and wanted to know if I could give them a hand," Paone said. "I did it more as a favor, you know. It's one of those things when somebody is the head, and packs that much power and asks you for a favor, it's kind of hard to say no."

Paone said that by the time he finished his work in late October or early November, he had sent Stevens more than $100,000 in invoices for his own work.

As I mentioned above, up to now we knew that the FBI was investigating VECO, the oil field support company, for bribery and extortion of Alaska legislators. The two top VECO executives have confessed and one sitting and two recent legislators have been indicted. Another former legislator was indicted last fall, but on what seems a separate issue. We also know that two more state senators have been investigated, but not indicted. These indictments are expected soon. One of the two is Ben Stevens, Ted's son.

In September 2005, Rich Mauer wrote

State Sen. Ben Stevens held a secret option to buy into an Alaska seafood company at the same time his powerful father, U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, was creating a special Aleutian Islands fishery that would supply the company with pollock worth millions of dollars a year.

And since Bill Allen, the head of VECO, has confessed to various counts and worked out a deal with the FBI, we can assume that he also may have talked to them about who paid for remodeling Ted's Girdwood house.

And finally, since this is a Republican administration in DC, the skeptics can't say it is a Democratic witch hunt.

Anchorage Daily News

Proximity is all important in the world. Yesterday I called Rich Mauer at the ADN to see if he'd be on a panel on legislative ethics January 20 that I'm helping with for Alaska Common Ground and the Alaska Women League of Voters. He won't be in town - he's headed to Iraq for six weeks! But later in the day I got a call from a reporter doing a piece on Gov. Murkowski's trip to Asia a month before leaving office. Was it ok for him to do this? Well, I can't answer a question like that, but I could discuss some factors to consider. If he had some projects to finish up that would benefit the state, then it could be a reasonable trip to make before leaving office. On the other hand, if he (and his entourage) are using the trip to set up business for after they leave office, then it would be a different story. Since I didn't have any details, I certainly couldn't make a judgment. If I were the reporter, I'd want to know what they accomplished. Did they get any contracts signed? Did they arrange any future programs between Alaska and Asia? He said they had stuff like, 'increased interest in Alaska trade." That's pretty vague, I replied, it is up to the Governor's office to document what they specifically accomplished. There are state ethics laws prohibiting doing business on projects you worked on while in office. Probably a year, don't know the details.

Well, on today's front page I saw this:

Farewell Asia tour cost state $100 grand
MURKOWSKI: Former governor says trip pushed trade and tourism.
By RICHARD RICHTMYER
Anchorage Daily News

Published: January 3, 2007
Last Modified: January 3, 2007 at 10:42 AM

Former Gov. Frank Murkowski's international trade mission in the waning days of his term cost the state about $114,000, according to expense records Murkowski and other state employees filed in connection with the three-nation tour.
In response to a request for information under Alaska's public-records law, the governor's office furnished a 1-inch-thick stack of receipts, travel authorization forms, itineraries and other documentation incurred by Murkowski and a dozen state employees who made at least part of the trip.
The paperwork shows a running tab of typical travel expenses: airfares, meals, lodging and ground transportation.
Gov. Sarah Palin said she was concerned about the trip's reported price tag.
For more go to: here.



Actually, not sure what you have to do to get into the story - the ADN has been making it difficult to get stories beyond the first week. This should be ok today, but I don't know about next week. So I'll give you a little from the end so you can see that Richtmyer did a reasonable job in conveying what I said.


The lack of specificity in the state's explanation raises some questions as to the value of the trip, said Steve Aufrecht, a University of Alaska Anchorage professor who has a particular interest in governmental ethics.
"It's up to (Murkowski) to tell us what he actually did," Aufrecht said. "Were any programs finalized, were any contracts finalized, or were they spending money to further private interests he's going to be pursuing after he's out of office?"
Murkowski has said he planned to set up shop as a business consultant in Fairbanks focusing on resource development and Asia.
In an interview before he left office last month, Murkowski said he hadn't lined up any clients yet. The October trip was one of many trips he made to Asia during a 26-year career as a U.S. senator and governor, so he already has plenty of contacts, Murkowski said.

So what has this got to do with proximity? Well, if I hadn't called Rich Mauer, he wouldn't have thought of me when Richard Richtmyer asked him about someone to call for his story.