Anchorage Daily News

A former Alaska lawmaker convicted of corruption charges has been assigned to a prison in California.

Former state Rep. Vic Kohring, a Wasilla Republican, had hoped to serve his three-and-a-half-year sentence at a federal prison in Sheridan, Ore. Instead, he said, he's been assigned to a facility in Taft, Calif. Kohring is headed to the prison that former Anchorage lobbyist Bill Bobrick is about to be released from.

Kohring called the assignment retaliatory and part of ongoing payback in a process he has termed unfair.

"It's a real slap in my face frankly to send me to the desert of southern California," he said. "However, I am not afraid of prison at all, and prison is prison wherever they send me. I am just thinking about the people that love me and people that what to be in touch and be able to see me and that is largely being taken away from me with this current facility, which I think is flat wrong."

Kohring is scheduled to turn himself in at the end of June.

Kohring was convicted in November of accepting at least $2,600 from executives of VECO Corp., an Alaska company with more than 4,000 employees. VECO provided engineering, construction and facility maintenance services to major oil producers. Its officers carried enormous political clout, sponsoring fundraisers and donating to candidates.

VECO CEO Bill Allen and a company vice president, Rick Smith, said they bribed Alaska lawmakers to procure legislation, including a favorable tax rate, that would lead to the construction of a massive natural gas pipeline project delivering North Slope reserves to customers in the Midwest.

At his sentencing in May, Kohring blamed his conviction on prosecutors who twisted his words and a judge with a conflict of interest. He acknowledged that he accepted gifts from Allen, a man he considered a longtime friend.

Bobrick was sentenced to five months for his role in setting up a sham company with former state Rep. Tom Anderson, R-Anchorage. The company was set up to conceal payments they believed were coming from a private prison firm. Instead, the money was provided by the FBI as part of its investigation into corruption in the Alaska Legislature.

Anderson started a five-year term in December. Bobrick is due to be released this week.

ADVERTISEMENT