Stevens Investigation Broader Than Veco Home MakeoverIt’s official: the FBI is looking into more than Sen. Ted Stevens’ Veco-overseen remodeling project. Roll Call reports that the FBI and the Department of Interior are also looking into a series of earmarks for one of Stevens’ pet projects.
The project, the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seaward, Alaska, has received some $50 million in federal money since 1998. One of Stevens’ former aides, Trevor McCabe, was paid $558,000 of that money for an adjacent piece of land. Federal investigators want to know more about the arrangement.
It wasn’t the only time that federal money found its way to McCabe’s pocket. McCabe is also tied to the federal investigation of Stevens’ son, former state Senate President Ben Stevens. The FBI raided the younger Stevens’ offices last year, gathering documents related to his time on an Alaska board that handed out millions in federal grants to the seafood industry. While Stevens was on the board, he partnered with McCabe in a consulting company that took fees from the companies that received the federal money. The older Stevens saw to it that the board was stocked with federal funds.
If the three-pronged federal investigation into Stevens run by the IRS, FBI and Interior Department doesn’t impress you, Roll Call mentions that the raid of a US senator’s home is a historical moment in Congressional corruption: “Stevens appears to be the only member of the Senate to have ever had his residence raided by the FBI.”