Contracts, ties to Stevens probed

WASHINGTON — The FBI is investigating the National Science Foundation's award of $170 million in contracts to the oil-field-services company that oversaw renovations on Sen. Ted Stevens' home, an NSF spokesman said Wednesday.

Veco won a five-year NSF contract in 1999 to provide logistics and support for polar research, although it had no previous experience in that field. During the same time period, Veco's top executive managed renovations that doubled the size of the longtime Republican senator's Girdwood, Alaska, home — the scene of a July 30 FBI search.

NSF spokesman Dana Cruikshank said the FBI has inquired about the 1999 award, worth up to $70 million, and a 2004 contract for as many as seven years that the company values at up to $100 million. A Justice Department spokesman and a spokeswoman for the FBI's Washington field office, which is leading the investigation, declined comment.

Veco's founder and CEO, Bill Allen, pleaded guilty last spring to making $400,000 in illegal payments to Alaska lawmakers, including Stevens' son Ben, then president of the Alaska Senate. Allen is cooperating in a sweeping FBI corruption investigation that also has led to the conviction of a second Veco executive, a lobbyist and a former state representative.

Three other state lawmakers are awaiting trial on bribery charges. Ben Stevens has not been charged.

The disclosure provides further evidence of the degree to which the investigation has widened to include at least two of the state's three members of Congress. Alaska's only congressman, Republican Don Young, also is under investigation for his ties to Veco.

Until now, there had been little hint as to how Veco might have benefited from the close relationship that its CEO had with the elder Stevens, who served for several years as the powerful chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Stevens also had oversight of the National Science Foundation in his senior role on the Senate Commerce Committee.

No evidence has surfaced that Stevens directly steered the contract to Veco, but his aggressive support for increased funding for Arctic research coincided with the company's sudden emergence as a major player in providing logistics for polar scientists. Veco helps transport researchers, houses them and provides equipment and communications.

Stevens, 83, would not comment on any aspect of the investigation. A spokesman said the senator long has had an interest in seeing more money spent on Arctic research.

"Alaskans, more than anyone in the nation, are feeling the effects of climate change," Aaron Saunders said. "In order to understand the causes and impacts of these changes, Sen. Stevens believes that a variety of agencies must help us learn more about the Arctic."