Securities: Execs Plead Guilty to Bribing Lawmakers

The two top officers of an oil services company have pleaded guilty to having bribed Alaskan lawmakers with money and the promise of jobs, contracts, and favors for their backing on bills supported by the firm. Bill J. Allen and Rick Smith have pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to charges of extortion, bribery, and conspiracy. Allen is the founder and chief executive of Anchorage-based VECO Corp., and Smith was the vice president of the company.

Execs Plead Guilty to Bribing Lawmakers

Federal prosecutors say that Smith and Allen bought the support of the five state lawmakers. The lawmakers are not named in the court documents. Allen also pleaded guilty to giving company bonuses to VECO executives in order to pay them back for campaign contributions they made and then claiming the bonuses were legitimate company expenses. Amy Menard, an attorney for VECO, says that the situation is unfortunate: "No company wants to find itself where VECO is at. It's a difficult set of circumstances for any company to contend with." Sentencing has not yet been determined.