Alaska senator indicted on corruption charges

Senator Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator and a figure in Alaskan politics since before it received statehood, has been indicted on seven counts of falsely reporting hundreds of thousands of dollars in services he received from a company that helped renovate his home.

Stevens, 84, has been dogged by a federal investigation into whether he pushed for fishing legislation that also benefited his son, an Alaskan lobbyist.

From May 1999 to August 2007, prosecutors said Stevens concealed “his continuing receipt of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of things of value from a private corporation.”

The indictment released last night said the items included improvements to his vacation home in Alaska.

Justice Department officials were holding a news conference late last night to discuss the charges.

Prosecutors said Stevens “took multiple steps to continue” receiving things from oil services company VECO Corp, and its founder, Bill Allen.

At the time, the indictment says, Allen and other VECO employees were soliciting Stevens for “multiple official actions ... knowing that Stevens could and did use his official position on behalf of VECO during that same period.”

VECO’s requests included funding and other aid for the oil services company’s projects and partnerships in Pakistan and Russia. It also included federal grants from several agencies — as well as help in building a national gas pipeline in Alaska’s North Slope Region, according to the indictment filed in US District Court in Washington.