For much of Thursday at Pete Kott’s corruption trial, defense lawyer Jim Wendt tried to chip away at the story being told from the witness chair by former Veco chief executive Bill Allen.
Kott, a Republican and former House speaker from Eagle River, is accused of pushing new oil tax legislation on behalf of Veco that was also favored by North Slope oil producers. In exchange, prosecutors say he got nearly $9,000, a political poll and the promise of a job.
Wendt kept pushing to get him to say Allen’s promise of a job didn’t really mean much or that the money Veco executives gave to Kott was legitimate.
Allen, 70, though weary and showing the strain at times after two days on the stand, didn’t go along with the defense.
He is a key prosecution witness in the trial of Kott, a man whom Allen called a close friend, almost like family.
Allen told jurors he already has admitted his guilt in a conspiracy. He testified that he pleaded guilty to bribing three former legislators: “Pete Kott, Vic Kohring and Ben Stevens.”
Kohring, a Republican from Wasilla who served in the House, is awaiting trial. Stevens, a Republican and former Senate president from Anchorage, hasn’t been charged. Allen didn’t mention a fourth legislator, former state Rep. Bruce Weyhrauch, whose corruption case was split from Kott’s just before the trial began.
Allen testified that he didn’t always tell FBI agents who were investigating corruption among legislators what they wanted to hear, but it was the truth.
“I worked real hard trying to make the truth and everything … to be fair,” Allen said.
Allen said that he expected to be sentenced to 10 to 11 years in prison but that no promises had been made. “Whatever happens to me happens.”
He was confronted by FBI agents on Aug. 30, 2006, while going to breakfast with Sen. Fred Dyson, who unknown to Allen was helping in the investigation.
Allen said he agreed to cooperate to save his three grown children from being indicted and to spare Veco, which he built from its roots on Cook Inlet rigs to an international company with more than 4,000 employees. Veco was sold last week to CH2M Hill.
From the FBI headquarters in downtown Anchorage that first day, Allen called Kott. The FBI, which was recording the call without Kott’s knowledge, wanted to know more about a $7,993 payment from Allen that apparently was destined for Kott’s son.
Prosecutors say the money was paid to Kott through an inflated invoice from his hardwood flooring company.
“Have you got your son took care of?” Allen asked Kott in the call, which earlier had been played for jurors.
Yeah, Kott answered.
“Did Rick get it done for you?” Allen asked, referring to former Veco vice president Rick Smith, who also has pleaded guilty to bribery and other charges.
Yeah, yeah, Kott answered.
“How did he do it or - can you tell me?” Allen went on.
Kott reminded Allen that it was his check.
“Remember we talked about three, four or five weeks ago just add on X amount - I forgot what it was exactly - to your bill or something,” Kott told him.
Prosecutors have played dozens of secretly made recordings for jurors that expose crude language, drinking and political deal making in which, they say, Kott was corrupted by Allen and Smith.
On Thursday, defense lawyer Wendt asked Allen if the $7,900 was an advance for future flooring work, not a bribe.
Allen said he didn’t know anything about any future work. The money, he said, was for Kott’s son, Peter Jr., to take time off from the flooring business and help out on his father’s campaign.
The defense appeared to score a point when Wendt pressed Allen on whether he had offered Kott a lobbying job “with Veco.”
Allen said in at least one of the recorded conversations that Kott would be a lobbyist. But when Wendt asked him to find on the transcript where he specifically promised that Kott would be a lobbyist for Veco, he couldn’t.
“In my mind I told him he would be a lobbyist with Veco,” Allen said, adding he believed that was Kott’s understanding as well. Another issue concerns $1,000 cash that Allen handed to Kott in Suite 604 of Juneau’s Baranof Hotel. Many of the recordings were made there.
Wendt asked Allen if that wasn’t just reimbursing Kott for money he had contributed to Gov. Frank Murkowski’s campaign.
Allen said he didn’t owe Kott anything for that. But Wendt repeatedly asked if the $1,000 was payback for the contribution.
“Yeah, but he didn’t ask for it. I just gave it to him … goddamn,” a frustrated Allen said on the witness stand.
Wendt contends Kott didn’t always do Veco’s bidding and was on the opposite side of matters such as workers’ compensation.
But Allen testified he didn’t remember if there was ever any issue where he and Kott split.
Allen said he was friendly with a few legislators, all Anchorage Republicans, including Stevens and state Reps. Mike Hawker and Norm Rokeberg.
He was especially close only to Kott and state Sen. John Cowdery, he said.
Kott was a drinking buddy who lived with him for a few months in 2005 to be closer to flooring jobs, Allen said. He related to Cowdery because both were contractors - Cowdery used to run an excavation business - and liked to talk shop.
Both regularly showed up at his downtown Anchorage home unannounced. He welcomed it. Cowdery would say “I’m at the front door,” Allen told jurors.
Wendt asked Allen about Veco’s hiring of legislators as consultants. Allen talked about two, Stevens, and former state Rep. Tom Anderson, R-Anchorage. Anderson was convicted in July of seven federal charges in another corruption case, but the allegations didn’t involve Veco.
Allen said another executive hired Anderson and he only found out later.
“He was supposed to be like a lawyer,” Allen said. But he admitted “I don’t know why we really hired him.”
Allen told jurors he talked with Kott about eventually going to work for Veco - but after he was out of office. He said Veco shouldn’t hire sitting legislators and it shouldn’t have happened with Anderson.
As to Stevens, he started consulting for Veco in 1995, six years before he was appointed to the Senate, Allen said. “He was real good at details. He was like Pete. He would work,” Allen said.
By the time Stevens was in the Senate, he had four kids, Allen noted. “How am I supposed to say 'now that you’re a senator, Ben, I can’t give you more money,’ ” Allen testified. “I couldn’t do that.”
One strange moment happened at the end of Friday’s testimony. Wendt asked Allen if he had threatened to have his nephew, Dave Anderson, killed for being “involved in blackmail.”
Allen said there was blackmail but that he never threatened to have his nephew murdered.
“I told him I’d kick the s--- out of him,” Allen said on the witness stand.
The trial resumes today with Allen still on the stand. Smith also is expected to testify.
The trial is expected to take much of next week.
Find Sean Cockerham online at adn.com/contact/scockerham or call 257-2344. Find Lisa Demer online at adn.com/contact/ldemer or call 257-4390.
