Oil company executives admit bribes
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Two top officers of an oil services company pleaded guilty Monday to bribing Alaska lawmakers with cash and the promise of jobs, contracts and favors for their backing on bills supported by the multinational firm.
Bill J. Allen, founder and chief executive of Anchorage-based VECO Corp., and Rick Smith, a vice president, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to extortion, bribery, and conspiracy to impede the Internal Revenue Service.
Allen’s attorney did not return calls Monday. Smith’s attorney, John Murtagh, declined comment.
Prosecutors say Smith and Allen conspired to buy the support of five state lawmakers, who are not named in charging documents.
Allen also pleaded guilty to issuing company bonuses to VECO executives to repay them for campaign contributions they made to politicians, then claiming those bonuses as legitimate company expenses.
“It’s an unfortunate day,” said Amy Menard, an attorney for VECO. “No company wants to find itself where VECO is at.”
Sentencing was not immediately scheduled. The sentence recommended for each is about 10 years in prison and fines up to $150,000, according to plea agreements dated Wednesday and Thursday, and unsealed Monday. The combined maximum sentence for each is 20 years in prison and $750,000 in fines.
VECO has said no corporate subsidiaries or other executives were involved.
The pleas came three days after federal prosecutors indicted one current and two former members of the Alaska House of Representatives on bribery and extortion charges related to last year’s negotiations for a new oil and gas tax and a proposed natural gas pipeline.
The three indicted lawmakers – Rep. Vic Kohring, of Wasilla, and former Reps. Pete Kott, of Eagle River, and Bruce Weyhrauch, of Juneau – pleaded not guilty Friday.
Kott, the former House speaker, is accused of accepting $8,993 in payments, $2,750 in polling expenses and the promise of a contract as a lobbyist for VECO in exchange for his support of the proposed pipeline and a tax proposal that favored VECO, according to court documents. He said he would throw his support behind the company if he was made warden of a prison the company was building in the Caribbean, according to the indictment.
The tax passed, but the contract for the pipeline negotiated by former Gov. Frank Murkowski was never approved.
Kohring is accused of demanding and accepting up to $2,600 in cash and a $3,000 job for a relative from VECO executives in exchange for his support.
On Monday, Kohring was stripped of his job as chairman of the House Oil & Gas Committee.
Weyhrauch, a 54-year-old lawyer, is charged with helping advance the oil service company’s causes for the promise of legal work.