Feds Raid State Lawmakers In Alaska

Authorities say federal agents raided the offices of at least six Alaska lawmakers Thursday, in a search for any ties between the legislators and a large oil field services company.

FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez said the FBI and Internal Revenue Service executed search warrants in Anchorage, Juneau, Wasilla, Eagle River and Girdwood.

A woman who answered the phone at the U.S. Attorney's office in Anchorage said no one locally could answer questions about the raid, and referred questions to a Department of Justice spokeswoman in Washington, D.C., who didn't answer her phone.

Tam Cook, the state 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.

One of the legislators approached by investigators Thursday was Rep. Vic Kohring, R-Wasilla.

"This morning, investigators from the FBI interviewed me in my office regarding an investigation of VECO," Kohring said in a prepared statement.

Kohring said he cooperated, and was told he was not a target of the investigation.

Two legislative aides, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal from federal agents who told them not to talk to reporters, said FBI agents were looking for any ties including financial information and gifts.

One aide said agents did not show him the warrant, but said officials described what was in it. He said the warrant allowed for the search of computer files, personal diaries and other documentation: "It pretty much covered the gamut."

The other aide said he demanded to read the warrant before allowing the search and that VECO officials Bill Allen, Rick Smith and Pete Leathard were named in the warrant.

A message left Thursday with VECO was not returned.

The aide who had the warrant read to him said among documents taken were a lawmaker's 2006 day planner, travel itineraries, Alaska Public Office Commission reports and paperwork related to the draft gas contract the governor gave to every legislator in May.

Agents conducted office searches in both Juneau and Anchorage belonging to Sen. John Cowdery, R-Anchorage, the Senate Rules chairman. The senator stood by in Anchorage as authorities sifted through documentation.

The offices of Senate President Ben Stevens, R-Anchorage; Kohring; Rep. Bruce Weyhrauch, R-Juneau; Sen. Donald Olson, D-Nome; and Rep. Pete Kott, R-Eagle River also were searched.

Four different teams of at least six federal agents spent hours searching offices on each floor of the Capitol.

Agents left Stevens' Capitol office Thursday evening with 12 boxes of documents labeled "Evidence" and loaded them into a vehicle waiting them outside. Special Agent Wade Dudley said they were being taken to an undisclosed location in Juneau.

"I don't know what they're going to do with it," Dudley said. "We collect it for the case agent's review."

Meanwhile, outside Weyhrauch's office, agents wearing blue rubber gloves inspected documents, inventoried them and sealed them well into the night.

In Anchorage, the blinds were mostly drawn and doors shut in most offices being searched at the downtown Legislative Information Office. Agent wearing blue rubber gloves were visible through gaps in the blinds, rifling through documents in Stevens' Anchorage office.

Kohring, contacted at his legislative office in Wasilla, would not confirm that his office was part of the raid or what agents were searching for, saying "I can't talk about that right now." Agents were seen leaving his Juneau office with boxes that appeared to contain documents.