WASHINGTON — Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator and a storied figure in Alaska’s political history, was indicted Tuesday on seven felony counts of making false statements in a corruption case.
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 chief executive from 1999 to 2006 without reporting them. The gifts included material and labor used in the renovation of Stevens’ private vacation home in Girdwood, a ski resort town near 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.
The indictment increases prospects for Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, Stevens’ Democratic opponent in this year’s Senate election, to pick up his seat.
Prosecutors were asked at a news conference whether the indictment was timed to intersect with the political year. Matthew Friedrich, chief of the Justice Department’s criminal division, said Attorney General Michael Mukasey has decreed that “partisan politics should play no part in what charges we bring” or their timing. That policy, he added, “was followed to the letter in this case.”
The Stevens inquiry is part of a broader federal investigation into public corruption among Alaska’s politicians. So far, three state legislators have been convicted and four others have entered guilty pleas and are cooperating with the government. VECO executives have also been convicted and have admitted bribing Alaska lawmakers, including Stevens’ son, former state Sen. Ben Stevens.
Alaska’s only U.S. House member, Don Young, is also under investigation.
