Former, Current Alaska Lawmakers Charged

By STEVE QUINN

JUNEAU, Alaska – One current and two former Alaska legislators were indicted Friday on charges they accepted bribes – including cash and a job offer in Barbados for one man – to support legislation favorable to an oil services company.

All were arrested Friday in Juneau. Rep. Victor Kohring, a Republican from Wasilla, was charged with extortion, attempted extortion, bribery and conspiracy, according to a federal grand jury indictment unsealed Friday.

Pete Kott of Eagle River and Bruce Weyhrauch of Juneau, both Republicans, pleaded not guilty to four counts including extortion, bribery and wire or mail fraud in trying to help the company, VECO Corp. It is not named in court documents, but an attorney for the company identified it after the indictments were unsealed.

Prosecutors allege the scheme evolved as lawmakers weighed a new petroleum profits tax structure and a new contract for a natural gas pipeline. The tax passed, but the contract for the pipeline negotiated by former Gov. Frank Murkowski and BP PLC, ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil was never approved.

Kott explicitly linked his support of the pipeline and the tax proposal in exchange for benefits, according to the indictment.

“You’ll get your gas line, the governor gets his bill, and I’ll get my job in Barbados,” he told company executives during a teleconference, the indictment states.

Kott is accused of accepting $8,993 in payments, $2,750 in polling expenses and a future contract as a lobbyist in exchange for his support of the pipeline and a tax proposal that favored the company, according to court documents.

Weyhrauch is charged with helping advance the oil service company’s causes in exchange for the promise of legal work in the future for the company, the federal government asserts.

FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez said the arrests stemmed from an investigation that led federal agents to last summer raid the offices of at least six lawmakers, including Kott and Weyhrauch.

Amy Menard, an attorney representing VECO Corp. in the investigation, told The Associated Press that the Anchorage-based corporation is involved and cooperating, and confirmed it is the company in the documents. The company has turned over more than 100,000 pages of documents to the government, she said.

“VECO has been cooperating since day one, since it learned of the investigation. The government has indicated to the company that it is satisfied with the cooperation and is looking forward to continued cooperation,” she said.

Kott’s son, Peter Kott Jr., declined comment when reached at the family’s Eagle River business, and calls left at the Kott and Weyhrauch homes were not immediately returned.

Weyhrauch did not run for re-election to his house seat in November. Kott, a former House speaker, lost a bid to retain his seat in the August primary. It was not clear Friday if they ever took the jobs they were allegedly promised after they left the Legislature.

A combined trial was set for July 9 in Anchorage. If convicted of all charges, each of the men could face up to 55 tears in prison and a $1 million fine. Kott and Weyhrauch were released Friday on $20,000 bonds.

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Associated Press writers Anne Sutton in Juneau and Rachel D’Oro in Anchorage contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

http://www.veco.com/