Former CEO sentenced 3 years for Alaska bribery

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – The businessman at the center of Alaska's wide-ranging political corruption investigation, once a pillar of the Alaska oil industry and state Republican party, was sentenced on Wednesday to serve three years in prison and to pay a $750,000 fine.

Bill Allen, who built VECO Corp into Alaska's biggest oilfield services company and a political heavyweight in the state, pleaded guilty in May 2007 to three counts of bribery and conspiracy. Allen subsequently resigned, and his company was taken over by CH2M Hill.

Charges were brought against him after federal agents videotaped him passing out cash to state legislators and discussing other payments and favors that would be given in exchange for industry-friendly votes on an oil-tax bill and other oil policies.

The corruption investigation, which became public in Alaska when Federal Bureau of Investigation agents raided several lawmakers' offices in August 2006, has been a watershed in Alaska history. Allen became one of the key witnesses in the federal investigation.

The probe ensnared one of the state's political icons, Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in U.S. Senate history. Stevens was convicted a year ago of seven counts of concealing valuable gifts, most of them from Allen and VECO. A U.S. judge threw out that conviction in April, saying prosecutors withheld important evidence from the defense.

Also sentenced Wednesday by U.S. District Court Judge John Sedwick was Allen's admitted co-conspirator, former VECO vice president Rick Smith. He was ordered by Sedwick to serve 21 months in prison and pay a $10,000 fine.

(Reporting by Yereth Rosen; Editing by Bill Rigby and Marguerita Choy)