Stevens’ Friend That Testified Is Also Business PartnerAnchorage real estate developer Bob Penney, who testified before a grand jury about the bribery scandal in Alaska, is good to his friend Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK).
So good that he brought Stevens in on a real estate deal that fetched the senior senator a 566% return on a $15,000 investment in just five years. The investment, reported by The Anchorage Daily News in 2004, sheds some light on the financial ties between the two (via Nexis):
Penney said he and his business partners invited Stevens to join them in “appreciation for all he’s done for Alaska and the country. We respect him very, very much.”
The group of investors purchased a 96-acre plot 30 miles outside of Salt Lake City, Utah in a growing area with a plan to sell off individual pieces over the course of ten years. Stevens’ $15,000 ballooned to at least $100,000 and possibly as much as $250,000.
The real estate deal is not the only financial endeavor between the two. Penney is also part of a group of investors called Alaska’s Great Eagle (a nod to Stevens’ days as a pilot in WWII) who bought a race horse with the senator and former chief executive of Veco, Bill Allen.
While Veco oversaw the renovation of Stevens’ Girdwood, Alaska home, the horse’s manager, Bob Persons checked in on the remodeling project while Stevens was in Washington.
Persons was ordered by the Washington grand jury to produce documents going back more than eight years, including all letters, e-mails and other documents involving Ted, his wife, Catherine, or Ben Stevens. Specifically mentioned were records about a race horse partnership, Alaska’s Great Eagle, he manages for Ted Stevens, Allen, Allen’s son Mark, Penney and others.
So far, the main focus of the Stevens investigation has focused on the Veco remodeling project.