On Monday the chief of staff for former Alaska Gov. Frank
Murkowski pleaded guilty to fraud in a corruption conspiracy in which there are
involved several state politicians and some of the Alaska’s political figures.
Jim Clark’s pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy fraud
in U.S. District Court in Anchorage.
His arraignment is scheduled on Tuesday.
He confessed that he took $68,000 from the oil-services
company, VECO Corp., in order to hide it from state election regulators in
polls and consultants fees for Murkowski's 2006 reelection which failed.
In the plea, Clark said he
will cooperate “in all federal, state and local investigations and prosecutions
as requested,” the Associated Press reports.
According to the plea, he might get four years in prison,
another three with supervised release and a fine form $7,500 to $75,000.
Clark and VECO wanted to hide the illegal contributions “in
a manner so that the public would be deceived and the payments would not be
disclosed, as required by law,” Reuters informs.
Bill Allen and Rick Smith, two former VECO executives,
pleaded guilty to bribing state lawmakers like former state Senate President
Ben Stevens, son of powerful U.S. Senator Ted Stevens. They are cooperating in
the probe with the authorities.
Sen. Ted Stevens is under investigation for the renovation
of his house in Girdwood, on Anchorage's
southern edge.
Allen said that he sent VECO employees to renovate it in
2000.
Stevens denied any allegation and only said that he paid the
bills presented for the remodeling project. He refused to comment upon the
investigation.
U.S. Rep. Don Young, Alaska's
sole House member, is also a subject of a federal investigation for his
connections with VECO and his budget in 2005 federal transportation
appropriations bills.
Two former officials were charged for taking bribes from
VECO. One is in a federal prison in Oregon
while the other awaits his sentence.
Due to Clark’s plea the
investigation is now reaching the governor’s office, where Murkowski served for
four years.
He was defeated in the 2006 Republican primary by Gov. Sarah
Palin.
