Prometheus 6

Alaska Senator's Calls Were Secretly Taped
Recorded Conversations Between Stevens, Businessman Part of Public Corruption Probe
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 21, 2007; A10

An Alaska oil contractor cooperated with the FBI by tape-recording phone calls with Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) as part of a public corruption investigation, a source familiar with the probe said last night.

The recordings done by former Veco Corp. chief executive Bill Allen mean that Stevens, who is the longest serving Republican in the Senate, was under scrutiny by the FBI much earlier than June, when the senator first acknowledged publicly that he was a subject of FBI inquiries.

Details about the recorded conversations between Allen and Stevens are unclear, including how many calls were taped, when they occurred and what information was gleaned from them.

The recordings were first reported by the Associated Press, which cited two people close to the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity. A source familiar with the investigation who confirmed the AP report last night also declined to be identified because the investigation is continuing.

Allen, 70, is a longtime political ally of Stevens who has pleaded guilty to bribery and is one of the federal government's key witnesses in an ongoing corruption prosecution of Alaska state legislators. Allen testified that he paid his employees to undertake a large-scale renovation of Stevens's house in the resort town of Girdwood.