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Ted Stevens

A legendary pork-barreler, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AL) is currently the longest-serving Republican senator and sits on the Commerce, Science and Transportation and Appropriations committees. He is also currently under criminal investigation by the FBI for his connection to an oil company whose executives have admitted to bribing public officials. Investigators are also probing his connection to some Alaskan fisheries that benefited from some of his earmarks.

Key Points:

Stevens is under investigation for his connection to Veco, an Alaska oil company whose top executives pleaded guilty to bribery in May 2007.

In 2000, Stevens transformed his one-story Girdwood, Alaska, home into a two-story home, a job that required extensive renovations. Veco's CEO Bill Allen, who pleaded guilty to bribery in May 2007, supervised the job. He testified that he paid for some of the senator's remodeling and had Veco employees working on the project.

The FBI searched the home in June 2007, and Stevens admitted that the FBI asked him to preserve records relevant to his ties to Veco. A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. heard evidence about Veco and the home renovation in May 2007. Allen also reportedly recorded phone calls with Stevens for the FBI as part of his plea bargain.

The bills for the house job were routed through Allen and Veco before going to the senator. Stevens has said he paid "every bill that was given" to him. Right around the time of the renovation, Veco won federal contracts worth $170 million to provide the National Science Foundation with polar and arctic research support, despite having no experience in the field.

Allen and Veco's VP pleaded guilty in May 2007 to bribing at least four legislators, including Stevens's son, former State Senate President Ben Stevens, whose company allegedly received $243,250 for consulting fees that were “in fact for the purpose of obtaining (Stevens’) official support on matters pending before the Alaska State Legislature.” After Allen's testimony, federal authorities arrested former U.S. Representative Pete Kott and three others, but not the younger Stevens. Kott was convicted in September 2007 of conspiracy to solicit financial benefits, extortion and bribery.

The FBI and Department of the Interior are investigating how $50 million in earmarks Stevens pushed through Congress for an Alaska non-profit was used and how more than $500,000 of it went to Stevens's former aide Travis McCabe, who is also currently under investigation.

The Alaska SeaLife Center in Seaward, Alaska, is one of Sen. Stevens' pet projects; it 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 appraised at half that value. At least $200,000 more was paid to a construction company in which McCabe was a managing partner to demolish a building on the land. The Washington Post reported that federal investigators, including the Interior Department and the Commerce Department, want to know more about the arrangement.

The probe has widened to include Alaska fisheries; young Stevens was head of a local board that distributed $12 million in federal grants to promote seafood companies that, at the same time, paid the younger Stevens more than $775,000 in "consulting fees."

At least three fisheries were issued grand jury subpoenas in September 2006 for documents related to the lobbying and consulting work provided by the younger Stevens and McCabe, Sen. Stevens former aide. The subpoenas also sought any documents connected to the older Stevens.

One of the companies involved, Trident Seafoods Corp., is positioned to benefit handsomely from a $3.5 million earmark tucked into a 2008 Senate spending bill by Sen. Stevens. The earmark is for an airstrip that would service seafood giant Trident and the population of Akutan, Alaska, which swells to 2000 twice a year when seasonal workers fly there for jobs.

Research by Adrianne Jeffries

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