7-29-08 by dugan
Here’s another thread in the federal corruption case against Sen.
Ted Stevens of Alaska. The company tied to Stevens, Alaska oilfield
servicer VECO, also did a lot of political dirt in the state
Legislature. Its top execs pleaded guilty last year to bribery and
corruption charges. But was something bigger going on? Was VECO doing
its dirty work on behalf of its Alaska customers–BP, Conoco
and Exxon? The Anchorage Daily News dug up some smelly leads last year, though it apparently wasn’t enough to persuade federal enforcers. Example:
Two former legislators told the Daily News in
interviews last week they’d been told by [VECO CEO] Allen he answered to the major
producers as he lobbied the Legislature — at least in the years before
2006.
"There may be, and I think there is,
culpability on the part of the producers," said Jim Whitaker, a former
Republican state representative who is now the Fairbanks North Star
Borough mayor and a proponent of a gas pipeline opposed by the major
producers. "They were certainly aware of much of what VECO is doing.
These are not naive people."Whitaker recalled a conversation with Allen around 2000 about prospects for a gas pipeline.
"What Bill Allen told me in the course of
that conversation was that the only person he listened to in regard to
the gas line was the then-president of ARCO Alaska, Kevin Meyers,"
Whitaker said. "He was the person that told Bill what to do regarding
gas line issues."Rick Halford, a longtime Eagle River lawmaker and former Senate president, said VECO’s role was evident to most legislators.
"Everybody knew that VECO was representing the majors, but they were never saying it directly," Halford said.
There’s
also a tantalizing wiretap transcript between Allen and the Alaska head
of ConocoPhillips, regarding ways to kill a measure that would have
raised taxes on oil producers. But by using a front man like VECO, the
big guys keep their hands clean of direct influence-peddling schemes.
That doesn’t make them smell any better, in Alaska or Washington, DC.