Feds Allege Stevens Did Foreign Favors For VECO, But Provide Few DetailsSo what did VECO get in return?
Federal prosecutors unveiled a narrowly focused indictment today for Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), limiting the criminal charges to the senator’s disclosure forms and what the Alaska-based energy services firm did for the lawmaker.
But there was, briefly, a small set of allegations about the longtime senator did for the company.
Among them, federal prosecutors say, Stevens provided: “funding requests and other assistance with certain international VECO projects and partnerships, including those in Pakistan and Russia.”
We’ve heard allegations of favors related to Pakistan before.
In the late 1990s, VECO built a $70 million pipeline for Pakistan and the military dictatorship running the country was slow to pay its bill. That is until Pakistan needed help from Congress on a trade issue, and Stevens was positioned to block the legislation at issue. Pakistan paid its tab soon after concluding it might help them out on Capitol Hill, according to the Los Angeles Times.
As for Russia, it’s unclear exactly what the prosecutors are referring to. VECO did a lot of business in Russia, often subcontracting work for large multinational oil companies. Also in 2005, VECO hired Steven’s son, Ben Stevens, to lobby the World Bank to get money the company needed for a spill cleanup job in Russia.
It’s hard to know precisely. And that’s probably one reason the feds limited the prosecution of Stevens to false statements made on his financial disclosure forms. Proving quid pro quo in court is exceptionally hard.