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Ex-Alaska House Speaker Gets 6 Years on Corruption Convictions Involving Oil Services Company
Former Alaska House Speaker Pete Kott was sentenced to six years in a federal prison Friday for accepting $9,000 in bribes from the founder of an oil field services company.
U.S. District Court Judge John Sedwick bumped up the prison term beyond sentencing guidelines after concluding that Kott had committed perjury during his trial. He also said the legislation Kott took bribes to influence — a revised tax law on Alaska's principal industry, crude oil extraction — affected every Alaskan.
"The amount of money was in the hundreds of millions, if not billions," Sedwick said.
Kott was convicted in September of bribery, extortion and conspiracy for his dealings with executives of VECO Corp., a major Alaska firm that performed maintenance, design and construction contracts for petroleum producers.
The case has wide implications because the FBI is investigating whether Ted Stevens, the U.S. Senate's longest-serving Republican, received illegal gifts from the head of VECO. Stevens has not been charged and has denied wrongdoing.
Besides the cash, federal prosecutors said the Republican ex-lawmaker accepted a political poll paid on his behalf by VECO and that he received the promise of a job with the company after he left the Alaska Legislature.
A key witness in Kott's trial was VECO founder and former CEO Bill Allen, who along with a company vice president, Rick Smith, has pleaded guilty to bribing Kott and other lawmakers.
Kott's two-week trial included testimony by Allen that he doled out more than $400,000 in bribes to various officials and had company workers remodel the home of Stevens. Stevens has said he paid all bills he received for the remodeling project.
The government's case against Kott was based on wiretaps of three phones belonging to Allen and Smith, plus video and audio recordings made by a camera that the FBI placed in a Juneau hotel room rented by VECO during the 2006 legislative session.
The recordings show Kott, Allen and Smith discussing legislative strategy, often in sessions fueled by alcohol and laden with profanity.
In one call, Kott said he would like to become a lobbyist after he left the Legislature. Allen testified it was understood that VECO would hire Kott.
Allen and Smith also testified that they schemed with Kott to give him $7,993 through his hardwood flooring business so that Kott could hire his son, Peter Kott Jr., as his campaign manager for the 2006 election. The payment, they said, was made through a phony invoice tacked on to a repair job done at Allen's home.
Kott claimed he received a $7,993 check for future work at the homes of Allen and Smith.
The judge agreed with prosecutors that Kott had concocted a story and a phony invoice to explain away the $7,993 check, something Sedwick said was "carefully planned to deceive the jury."
Sedwick said a sentence was needed to promote a respect for justice and deter other lawmakers from following Kott in being influenced by powerful people with whom they've grown close.
"We need to stiffen up some backbone here," he said. "The kind of behavior in which Mr. Kott indulged is the kind of behavior that causes all of us to wonder what goes on in Juneau."
Two other former Alaska lawmakers were convicted this year of corruption charges, one for improperly accepting at least $2,600 from Allen, the VECO chairman. The trial of a fourth lawmaker has been delayed.
Before the sentence was imposed, Kott apologized. He said his actions on the floor of the House were made in the best interest of the state.
Kott was fined $10,000 along with the prison sentence. He could have received 35 years on the three charges.
Kott represented Eagle River on Anchorage's north side for 14 years, including two as House speaker.
Source: AP News
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