Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska was indicted Tuesday on seven felony counts in a corruption scandal stemming from some mutual back-scratching he allegedly engaged in with oil service and construction company VECO. The charges against the Republican include secretly accepting renovations to his vacation home in exchange for official favors to VECO.
Los Angeles Times:
Prosecutors said the 84-year-old Stevens, required to file financial disclosure forms with the Senate on gifts greater than $10,000, had accepted innumerable gifts valued at $250,000 from the oil services company VECO and its CEO from 1999 to 2006 without reporting them. The gifts included material and labor used in the renovation of Stevens’ private vacation home in Girdwood section of Anchorage, including a new first floor, a garage, a wraparound deck, plumbing and electrical wiring, as well as a Viking gas grill, furniture and tools.
Stevens has adamantly denied any wrongdoing, saying he paid all the bills he was presented for the renovation. Prosecutors said Stevens, the first sitting U.S. senator to be indicted since 1993, will not be arrested and will be allowed to turn himself in.
The indictment alleges that while he was receiving these gifts, Stevens “could and did use his official position and his office on behalf of VECO during the same time period.” Among the company’s requests, said the indictment, were federal grants from several agencies as well as help in building a natural gas pipeline in Alaska’s North Slope region.
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Jump to Comments
By JATI HOON, July 30 at 8:47 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
He was only following T.V show and was doing all those home improvements for his Alaskan voters.
Report thisBy dick, July 30 at 7:24 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Stevens is one of the most corrupt scondrels in Congress, with full support from the voters of Alaska. Greed tops everything else.
Report thisBy VietnamVet, July 30 at 5:57 am #
Well, one thing is for sure: with all the corruption the GOPers have heaped on the nation over the last seven plus years, we won’t have to listen to a claim of “bringing integrity back to congress!” I suspect that records will show that this administration has been responsible for more corruption than the Hoover administration!
Report thisBy webbedouin, July 29 at 3:55 pm #
Alaskan politics must be a real hay ride.
“The fact of the matter is, we all want to bribe a politician,” said Mr. Whitekeys, an Anchorage entertainer whose long-running political cabaret is called the Whale Fat Follies. “We all thought it’d take a Mercedes or a Porsche. Nobody knew you could buy a politician for the cost of a used riding lawn mower.”
Report thisBy rowman, July 29 at 3:40 pm #
This serves as an excellent representation of what is wrong with both the Democrats and republicans.
Here is a much better article from Alaskas newspaper that recaps all those caught in this scandle:
http://community.adn.com/adn/node/112569
It reaches deep into both parties
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