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Veco: A Mucky Force in Alaska Politics
Veco Corp., the oil company at the center of a bribery scandal involving at least five lawmakers has spent the last three decades establishing itself as a force in Alaska politics.
Some 2,000 Alaskans work for the company that cleaned up after the Exxon-Valdez catastrophe and controls a conservative opinion arm of the Anchorage Daily News.
And, for lawmakers at the state and federal level, Veco is a major source of campaign financing. Two Veco heads, Bill J. Allen and Richard L. Smith, pled guilty yesterday to bribery charges for paying lawmakers for votes, including the former Alaska Senate President Ben Stevens, son of Sen. Ted Stevens. According to the plea agreement, Veco paid Ben Stevens about $240,000 in consulting fees that were actually in exchange for political favors. Stevens' lawyer said his client is not guilty of any wrongdoing.
Since 1993, Veco says it has completed about $25 billion worth of projects involving oil refining, pipeline work and power production. Recently, it created a separate corporate entity to handle federal contracting , to meet “the recent growth in the market.”
Veco prides itself on honesty, which the company lists as its second priority behind safety, and just before being a “good corporate citizen” – they are, after all, engaged in the political process.
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Comments (10)
Robin Boerner wrote on May 8, 2007 6:48 PM:It will be interesting to see how this Bush 41 appointee Judge John Sedwick handles the GOP donors extraordinaire's from VECO.
In John Mitchell vs the United States of America (the US Army) (case no. 3:05-cv-00264-JWS) Sedwick has shown a definite preference towards the Patriot Act US Attorney Nelson Cohen's office. The US Army and against a 100% service connected disabled veteran.
Allowing delaying tactics by Cohen's office, holding up honest discovery, canceling hearings at the last moment, allowing US Army thugs to assault John and I in a public store in an effort to disrupt the lawsuit. Assistant US Attorney Gary Guarino called John's lawyer to tell him the US Attorney was not taking a stand or investigating "the incident".
This ought to be interesting to watch. More Alaskan politics at it's best. Anyone want to bet that if Sedwick sentences them they VECO reps get wrist slaps?
Mitch Schapira wrote on May 8, 2007 6:56 PM:Here in Alaska the idea that VECO is dirty hardly qualifies as news. What is significant is that this story seems to be another example of McClatchy getting the story that the big boys, who are read in Washington D.C., seem to miss. Another aspect of the story is that VECO has a deal by which they get a half page of editorial space in the Anchorage Daily News.
Please visit the Schapira blog, "What we know so far ..." at http://schapira.blogspot.com
... and tell 'em Big Mitch sent ya!
theswan wrote on May 8, 2007 8:37 PM:Oil sure seems to be slick.
Richard L. Adlof wrote on May 8, 2007 8:47 PM:At least, they honest enough to plead guilty.
Anonymous wrote on May 8, 2007 10:24 PM:Buy back the Alaska legislature!
http://akrobotics.com/films/buy-back-alaska
oldtree wrote on May 8, 2007 10:33 PM:it sounds as if the company should be placed in custody of the state. (those remaining that aren't under indictment) the people of alaska deserve no less if this company has been dictating policy in the state without their knowing it.
parrot wrote on May 9, 2007 5:54 AM:sounds like almost anyone could run it effectively if they were honest. how much did they steal from you? are you pissed?
Any Bush Pioneers on the Board of Veco or in the folks pleading guilty? Just wonderin'...
swamp thing wrote on May 9, 2007 1:42 PM:I get offended by these crooks. They assume that we are so stupid that we'll never figure out their schemes.
HarpboyAK wrote on May 10, 2007 3:24 AM:Well, at least VECO will no longer have that paid-for section in the Daily Snooze called "Voice of the Times", started after VECO bought the failing Anch Times from Repuke Wingnut & political tirade master Bob Atwood and couldn't keep the rag afloat against a REAL Pulitzer-winning paper.
The Daily News announced today that the Agreement for printing "The Voice" expired this month and will not be renewed.
Now if we could only get the Juneau Vampire to stop wasting space on that Ketchikan Neanderthal Lew Williams, who rants just like Atwood used to against anyone who doesn't want to cut every tree, mine every mountain, drill for oil anywhere, and build roads everywhere.
Even the Repuke party said today that they would be returning the $35,000 in VECO employee "contributions" they had received last year.
fbugzb wrote on May 23, 2007 2:36 PM:Hi! Excellent site, I really like your stuff.
Good luck.