From The Associated Press, 9/1/06:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-alaska-lawmakers-fbi-raid,0,1673380.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines
FBI Probes Office of Sen. Stevens's Son
By MATT VOLZ
Associated Press Writer
JUNEAU, Alaska --
The offices of at least six Alaska legislators, including the son of
Sen. Ted Stevens, were raided by federal agents searching for possible
ties between the lawmakers and a large oil field services company,
officials and aides said.
Tam Cook, the Legislature's top attorney, said the company named in
the search warrant was VECO Corp., an Anchorage-based oil field
services and construction company whose executives are major
contributors to political campaigns.
Four different teams of at least six federal agents each spent hours
searching offices on each floor of the Capitol.
Among the offices searched was that of Republican Senate President Ben
Stevens, the son of the senior senator from Alaska.
Ted Stevens' spokesman Aaron Saunders said Friday that they had no
comment on the search.
Agents left Stevens' Capitol office Thursday evening with 12 boxes of
documents labeled "Evidence" and loaded them into a vehicle.
"I don't know what they're going to do with it," said Special Agent
Wade Dudley.
"We collect it for the case agent's review."
There was no immediate response to calls seeking comment late Thursday
from Ben Stevens, other lawmakers or Senate Republican majority
spokesman Jeff Turner.
Two legislative aides, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because
federal agents told them not to talk to reporters, said the FBI agents
were looking for any ties including financial information and gifts.
One aide said he demanded to read the warrant before allowing the
search and saw that it named VECO officials Bill Allen, Rick Smith and
Pete Leathard.
The second aide said agents did not show him the warrant but described
what was in it, covering searches of computer files, personal diaries
and other documentation.
He said that among documents that were taken included a lawmaker's
2006 day planner, travel itineraries, Alaska Public Office Commission
reports and paperwork related to a draft natural gas contract the
governor's office gave to every legislator in May.
There was no immediate response to a call seeking comment from VECO
representatives.
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