The best government money can buy

I wonder why the Sierra Club never gets busted for bribery…

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- The founder of a multinational oil services company and one of his top executives have admitted to illegally paying more than $400,000 to Alaska lawmakers in a widening political corruption scandal.

Bill J. Allen, chief executive of Anchorage-based VECO Corp., and Rick Smith, a vice president, pleaded guilty Monday to bribing state legislators with cash and the promise of jobs and favors for their backing on bills supported by the company.

Allen, 70, and Smith, 62, appeared separately in U.S. District Court to plead guilty to extortion, bribery and conspiracy to impede the Internal Revenue Service.

The pleas came days after the indictment of one current and two former Republican members of the Alaska House of Representatives on federal bribery and extortion charges related to last year's negotiations for a new oil and gas tax and a proposed natural gas pipeline that would have benefited VECO.

House Democrats on Monday asked Gov. Sarah Palin and House Speaker John Harris, R-Valdez, to consider a fall special session to review how the petroleum profits tax was approved.
The three indicted lawmakers -- Rep. Vic Kohring of Wasilla and former Reps. Pete Kott of Eagle River and Bruce Weyhrauch of Juneau -- have pleaded not guilty to accepting payoffs from VECO.

The FBI has said the arrests Friday stemmed from an investigation that led federal agents last summer to raid the offices of at least six lawmakers, including Kohring, Kott and Weyhrauch. Among those raided was the office of then-Senate President Ben Stevens, the son of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska.