FBI probes contracts to company with ties to (Senator) Stevens

[sabra]

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — The FBI is investigating the National Science Foundation's award of $170 million in contracts to the oil field services company that oversaw renovations on U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens' home, McClatchy Newspapers has learned.

The firm, Veco Corp., captured a lucrative five-year NSF contract in 1999 to provide logistics and support for polar research, although it had no previous experience in that field. During the same time period, Veco's top executive managed renovations that doubled the size of the longtime Republican senator's Girdwood, Alaska, home — the scene of a July 30 FBI raid.

NSF spokesman Dana Cruikshank told McClatchy Newspapers that the FBI has made inquiries into the 1999 award, worth up to $70 million, and a 2004 follow-up contract for as many as seven years that the company values at up to $100 million. Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra and spokeswoman Debra Weierman of the FBI's Washington field office, which is leading the investigation, declined comment on the NSF contracts.

Veco's founder and CEO, Bill Allen, pleaded guilty this spring to making $400,000 in illegal payments to Alaska lawmakers, including Stevens' son, Ben, who was then president of the Alaska Senate. Allen is cooperating in a sweeping FBI corruption investigation that also has led to the conviction of a second Veco executive, a lobbyist, and a former Alaska state representative.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/18960.html

[Tempest]

1. The noose is tightening around Stevens' neck

And there's enough left over to hang him with.

[aquart]

2. Looking forward to seeing him dangle.

[maddezmom]

3. kick

[Omaha Steve]

4. F.B.I. Studies Senator’s (Ted Stevens of Alaska ) Role in Contract

Source: New York Times

By PHILIP SHENON

WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 — The F.B.I. is investigating whether Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska had a role in arranging a 1999 government contract worth as much as $70 million for a company that oversaw renovations of his house months later, officials said Thursday.

The contract was awarded by the National Science Foundation to VECO, an Alaska oil-services company founded by a businessman who has confessed to bribing officials.

It is one of several government contracts and grants that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is scrutinizing in a corruption investigation centering on Alaska lawmakers, including Mr. Stevens and the state’s sole House member, Don Young.

Mr. Stevens and Mr. Young, both Republicans, have denied wrongdoing in their dealings with the founder of VECO, Bill Allen. The senator’s home in Girdwood, a resort city, was renovated in 2000 with Mr. Allen’s help. F.B.I. agents raided it last month.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/17/us/17cnd-stevens.html?ref=us