Alaska Attorney General Craig Richards and U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan have scheduled an announcement Friday about a possible state investigation of Bill Allen, the former Veco chief.
In a statement Thursday afternoon, Richards and Sullivan said they would hold a morning news conference at Richards' Anchorage office "to discuss recent developments in a potential state criminal investigation into allegations against Bill Allen."
Spokeswomen for both Richards and Sullivan would not provide any additional details.
Allen was convicted of bribery and tax violations and served time in federal prison, but in 2010, top officials at the U.S. Department of Justice quashed federal prosecution of Allen on sex charges involving minors.
The FBI and the Anchorage Police Department investigated allegations against Allen beginning in 2004, with a complaining witness, Paula Roberds, alleging that when she was 16, Allen flew her from Seattle to Anchorage several times for sex.
The police officer who led the investigation, Kevin Vandegriff, now a lieutenant, called the case "very solid," and the top federal officials who vetoed Allen's prosecution didn't provide an explanation — stoking speculation that the Justice Department used the threat of prosecution for sex crimes to pressure Allen to testify against former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens.
Sullivan was attorney general in 2010 when the Justice Department decided not to prosecute Allen for sex crimes. At the time, federal officials refused to give state prosecutors authority to pursue a case on their own under the Mann Act, which bans bringing people across state lines for sex crimes like prostitution.
Last year, Sullivan put language into a bill that passed Congress to require the Justice Department to allow state and local prosecutors to pursue violations of the Mann Act — or, if federal officials decide that granting the request would "undermine the administration of justice," they have to provide a detailed explanation for a denial.
Asked whether such a request had been made, Chloe Martin, a spokeswoman for the office of the U.S. Attorney for Alaska, said in an emailed statement Thursday that "we do not have any information to give in regards to Bill Allen."
Vandegriff, the Anchorage police officer who led the investigation of Allen, didn't respond to messages late Thursday.
Roberds, the complaining witness in Vandegriff's investigation, sued Allen in 2014. Allen responded in a filing last year in which he admitted paying for a sexual relationship with Roberds, but he said she told him at the time that she was 19, not 15.
Allen's attorney in that case, Paul Stockler, said in a brief phone interview Thursday that he wasn't aware of any developments in an investigation of Allen.
"I haven't heard anything about it," he said. "I'll be looking forward to the press release and the announcement."