Prosecutors again delay Zachares' sentencing

Zachares, a lawyer and ex-Alaskan who rose to the position of special counsel to Young when the Alaska Republican was chairman of the House Transportation Committee, is continuing to cooperate with federal authorities "in several ongoing investigations," prosecutors said in a motion filed Thursday in federal court in Washington.

"The government anticipates that Mr. Zachares' cooperation will continue for the foreseeable future," prosecutors with the Justice Department's criminal division said. As is normally the case, they provided no details.

Zachares had been scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge Ellen S. Huvelle for a status conference on Oct. 16. But in an order filed Friday, Huvelle canceled that hearing and ordered another for Jan. 8, indefinitely forestalling Zachares' sentencing.

Under his plea deal, he faces 18 to 24 months in prison, though the judge is not bound by the agreement. The charge carries a maximum sentence of five years.

Zachares' charge arose out of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal that has so far led to charges against 20 people, mainly public officials and lobbyists. Abramoff is now serving a four-year prison sentence for defrauding American Indian tribe clients and corruption of public officials.

Zachares admitted using his position in Young's committee to tip off Abramoff and his team of lobbyists to transportation projects, maritime issues and homeland-security matters.

In return, Zachares admitted, he accepted more than $30,000 in tickets to sporting events, a luxury golf trip to Scotland, and $10,000 in cash from Abramoff or his associates.

Abramoff got Zachares his job with Young around 2002, then told a fellow lobbyist that Zachares was "pulling our load inside" the committee.

Young, under investigation over unrelated matters in Alaska and Florida, was not named in Zachares' charge. But Abramoff has had several connections to Young over the years. In 2000, when Zachares was an official in the government of the Northern Mariana Islands and Abramoff was lobbying for the island government and the local garment industry, Young spiked a bill that would have imposed U.S. labor laws there.

That bill had been a pet project of a fellow Alaska Republican, then-Sen. Frank Murkowski, who said he was trying to stop near-slavery conditions in the Marianas, a U.S. territory in the Pacific. The bill didn't surface again until Abramoff was sentenced to prison. It passed Congress and was signed into law in 2008.

Starting in 1999, Indian tribes with gambling interests that were represented by Abramoff gave about $20,000 to Young's re-election efforts and his political action committee. Young's campaign used Abramoff's skybox at Washington's MCI Center for several fundraisers. And former Young aide Duane Gibson later went to work for one of Abramoff's firms.

In March, the former policy director on Young's transportation committee, Fraser Verrusio, was charged in a three-count indictment with conspiring to change a federal highway bill to benefit an Abramoff client. The charges said he accepted an illegal payment from Abramoff and associates: an expense-paid World Series trip to New York in 2003 that included a visit to a strip club, dinner at a steak joint and a night in a Manhattan hotel.

Verrusio was one of Young's first hires when he took over as chairman of the committee in 2001.

A trial date for Verrusio has not been set, but the judge in his case has ordered a status conference for Nov. 6.

Zachares and Verrusio were supervised by Young's chief of staff on the transportation committee, Lloyd Jones, a former Republican state senator from Ketchikan married to another ex-state senator, Jan Faiks, who was from Anchorage. Zachares, Verrusio and Jones -- now retired -- had nearby offices in the Rayburn House Office Building.

Young has refused to answer media questions about the federal investigations in which he's involved, and on Friday his spokeswoman said he continues to have no comment.

Public records show that since 2007 Young has spent more than $1 million from his campaign account and a legal defense fund on lawyers.

Zachares left Young's committee in 2005, the year of Young's massive transportation bill with its infamous "Bridges to Nowhere" funding for Alaska.

Since Zachares' plea, Judge Huvelle has twice allowed him to travel to Korea for business, the latest from Sept. 23 to Oct. 2. He hasn't had to publicly report what he does for a living, but his lawyer said in 2007 that he was working in sales.

Zachares' plea agreement also included a promise by the government to not charge his wife, Cynthia, in return for her cooperation. The couple have twin daughters and live in the Washington, D.C., area.

Find Richard Mauer online at adn.com/contact/rmauer or call 257-4345.