FBI searches Sen. Ted Stevens' Alaska home

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — FBI agents executed a search warrant at the Girdwood home of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, an agency spokesman said.

The warrant was served with agents of the Internal Revenue Service, said Dave Heller, FBI assistant special agent in charge of the Alaska office.

Reached at 2:30 p.m. Alaska Daylight Time, Heller said the federal investigators had arrived at the home in Girdwood minutes before.

Heller said he could not comment on the nature of the investigation and referred inquiries to the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice.

Calls placed to spokesmen for Stevens in Washington, D.C., were not immediately returned Monday afternoon. In the past, Stevens has said it is his long-standing policy not to comment on the federal investigation to avoid the appearance that he might influence the investigation.

Stevens, 83, is the longest-serving Republican senator. Federal investigators previously confirmed they were reviewing the renovation project that more than doubled the size of Stevens' home in Girdwood, the southernmost part of Anchorage.

The remodeling in 2000 was overseen by Bill Allen, a contractor who has pleaded guilty to bribing Alaska state legislators. Allen is founder of VECO Corp., an Alaska-based oil field services and engineering company that has reaped tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts.

In Washington, FBI spokesman Richard Kolko confirmed FBI and IRS agents "are conducting a court authorized search warrant in Girdwood, Alaska." He referred additional questions to the FBI office in Anchorage.

A law enforcement official familiar with the case confirmed the raid was on Stevens' home, and focused on records related to the ongoing VECO investigation.