Former Alaska Lawmakers Indicted

By STEVE QUINN

JUNEAU, Alaska – Two former Alaska lawmakers pleaded not guilty Friday to charges they accepted bribes – which included cash and a job in Barbados for one of them – for supporting legislation favorable to an oil services company.

Pete Kott of Eagle River and Bruce Weyhrauch of Juneau, both Republicans, were arrested Friday. Both face four counts, including extortion, bribery and wire or mail fraud in trying to help the company, which has not been named.

According to an indictment unsealed Friday, the scheme evolved as lawmakers weighed a new petroleum 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.

The court papers allege Kott explicitly linked his support of the pipeline and the tax proposal in exchange for benefits.

“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.

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.

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. Both 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.