ANCHORAGE - Bill Allen, a former Alaska oil executive and a key witness in the corruption trial of US Senator Ted Stevens, was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in bribing Alaska lawmakers.
Allen, the former chief executive officer of Veco Corp., an Alaska oilfield services company now owned by a Colorado firm, must also pay a $750,000 fine, US District Judge John Sedwick ruled yesterday in Anchorage. In 2007, Allen, 72, pleaded guilty to bribing legislators and agreed to cooperate with the government.
Allen was the key witness in three US corruption trials since 2007 that resulted in guilty verdicts, including the October conviction of Stevens, then the longest-serving Senate Republican, on seven felony counts of failing to report gifts from Veco. Stevens’s conviction was reversed in April.
Allen pleaded guilty to bribery and corruption charges in 2007, admitting he gave cash and other gifts to lawmakers to buy support for legislation that would help his former company and its clients, including