Whatever Happened to the Man Who Brought Down Alaska?Former VECO CEO Bill Allen, the oil executive who orchestrated Sen. Ted Stevens’ (R-AK) home renovations and whose testimony led to the indictment and conviction of a number of state legislators, has had a relatively soft fall from grace. Since testifying, little has been seen of Allen, whose sentencing on his May 2007 guilty plea has been continuously delayed as he remains free on a $10,000 unsecured bond.
As those connected to him fall to federal indictments, Allen is enjoying the windfall from the sale of steeped-in-corruption-VECO, for $146 million. Thanks to a carefully negotiated plea deal, two-thirds of that profit went to Allen and his three children. Oh, and did we mention he has no passport or travel restrictions?
According to the Anchorage Daily News, just seven months after his plea deal, Allen and two of his children bought a small jet, with an estimated value of $2 million. The plane has been flying all over the west, notably landing at airports near New Mexico racetracks, where all of the Allen children own licensed racehorses. And though he still owns his half-million dollar Anchorage home, Allen is reportedly spending the majority of his time in New Mexico:
Dick Cappellucci, a New Mexico licensed horse trainer from El Paso, Tex., who used to work for Allen’s son, Mark Allen, and once owned a race horse with Mark, said Bill Allen is living on his son’s Double Eagle Ranch. The county lists the ranch as a 46-acre property.Mark Allen himself “is building a fancy, fancy place over there,” Cappellucci said.
… Recently, the Allens have been showing up big at horse sales, Cappellucci said. “They’ve spent a lot of money in the horse business.”
“A lot of money in the horse business,” might be an understatement. According to the ADN, Mark Allen spent $726,000 for eight horses shortly before the sale of VECO.
But all is not as rosy as it might seem for Allen and Co. and their soft money bed at the race track. According to Bob Bundy, Allen’s defense lawyer, Allen is “just kind of marking time… waiting for the axe to fall… it’s not a very happy situation.”