Anchorage Daily News

FBI agents returned last week to the legislative office of Senate President Ben Stevens and seized more evidence, including a copy of a sworn statement that implicated Stevens in an alleged payment scheme involving fisheries legislation brought by his father, U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens.

Word of the second search, and what was taken by the FBI, came from Ben Stevens himself, who disclosed the information in a letter to the Daily News dated Sept. 22. In his letter, Stevens denied a request by the newspaper for a copy of any FBI search warrants which may have been served on him or his office, and the government's receipts for items seized. But Stevens provided what he said was a "complete listing of what was obtained from my legislative offices" on Aug. 31 and Sept. 18.

Stevens, a Republican who is not seeking re-election this year, said he voluntarily consented to the two FBI searches, though federal agents said they had a judge's warrant for the Aug. 31 search.

Among the material hauled off by agents, Stevens said, were binders on the proposed natural gas pipeline and revised oil taxes, as well as information on a board that doled out federal marketing money to fisheries companies, some of which paid him as a consultant. Stevens was chairman of that board until about six months ago.

The vast majority of items on Stevens' list were public records that could have been obtained by anyone, sometimes under a formal public information request, sometimes just for asking. For instance, the FBI seized the 2006 Legislative directory, the 2003 Legislative Ethics Training Manual, federal and state laws governing North Slope gas, and a "piece of paper" with the tax identification number for Stevens' consulting firm, Stevens and Associates.

Though much has been made of the FBI's apparent interest in the relationship between legislators and the politically active oil field service and construction company Veco -- the company itself was searched, and it was mentioned in other search warrants -- Stevens listed only a single Veco document taken by the FBI: an undated memo to Veco president Pete Leathard.

Stevens' list couldn't be independently verified and he wouldn't elaborate on anything. The FBI has said little about its investigation, aside from acknowledging serving 24 search warrants Aug. 31 and Sept. 1. The offices of six legislators were targeted Aug. 31, and Stevens is the only one the FBI returned to for a second round, said FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez. No one has been charged.

It was also impossible to determine the significance of any particular item seized -- whether it was scooped up to determine its relevance later, or central to the inquiry. That's normal in a federal investigation, said former U.S. Attorney Wev Shea, now in private practice in Anchorage. FBI agents will seize records through a warrant rather than simply ask for them as public records to make sure they are getting everything, he said. Plus, the drama of the FBI raids themselves may have been designed to stir things up and get people talking as the investigation continues.

"They don't know what phones are tapped. Nor do they know who is wired," said Shea, who added that he doesn't have inside information of the case.

The FBI has been asking some state legislators about the debate on the gas pipeline and oil taxes, and those subjects make up the largest haul from Stevens' office Aug. 31.

The government also seized Stevens' Rolodex containing business cards and a phone log, made a copy of the hard drive of a Gateway computer, and took an 80-gigabyte hard drive, an untitled compact disc and something described as an "e-mail found on printer."

Some of the material goes beyond issues known to be important to Veco like the gas pipeline and touch on fishery subjects that involve Ben's father, long-time U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. Since 2005, Ted Stevens has chaired the Senate Commerce Committee, through which all fisheries legislation passes. Before that, he chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee, one of the most powerful seats in Congress.

Among fishery-related items, Ben Stevens reported that in the second search, the FBI seized "Victor Smith affidavit" and a 2004 "UFA" letter -- United Fishermen of Alaska. Agents also took two April 2006 letters he wrote to the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board, which he headed from its creation by Ted Stevens in 2003 until his resignation earlier this year.

The second search also yielded a Jan. 23 fax to Ted Stevens along with "unknown documents of Ted Stevens with a cover page dated 6/5/06 bearing the United States Senate seal."

Through a spokesman, Ted Stevens said he had no comment.

Ben Stevens, a former crab-boat captain, has maintained an active fisheries consulting business since being named to a vacant Senate seat in 2001, disclosing $775,435 in income from nine companies and associations since then. He has never publicly said what he has done for the money.

Victor Smith, a former Southeast Alaska salmon fisherman who now operates a barge in north Puget Sound, said Monday he has signed three affidavits regarding Ben Stevens. The affidavits helped form the basis of complaints brought against Ben Stevens at the Alaska Public Offices Commission and other agencies by Ray Metcalfe, a government watchdog and founder of the independent Republican Moderate Party in Alaska.

It could not be determined which of Smith's affidavits the agents seized. In one, he reported attending a 2004 meeting of the Purse Seine Vessel Owners Association in which officials of that organization and the Southeast Alaska Seiners Association discussed how it would pay Ben Stevens after congressional passage of a $50 million loan program to reduce the seine fleet.

Smith said he learned Ben Stevens was supposed to be paid "through convoluted accounting" $5,000 a month to secure a plan, and $10,000 a month if successful, until he was paid $500,000.

While the loan program passed Congress and was enacted into law, fishermen complained it was too expensive for them to use.

Bob Thorstenson Jr., executive director of the seiners association and president of the United Fishermen of Alaska, denied paying Ben Stevens to lobby Ted Stevens. In an interview last year, he said the payments of $3,000 a month were made starting in June 2004 to an Anchorage company, Advance North, in which Stevens and one of his father's former aides, Trevor McCabe, were 50-50 partners. McCabe became sole owner of the company in October 2005.

In both searches of Stevens' offices, FBI agents seized documents involving the Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board. The organization was created in 2003 in legislation by Ted Stevens to provide federal grants to companies to promote Alaska seafood. It has distributed between $5 million and nearly $10 million a year in grants.

At least three of the beneficiaries of grants from the board paid consulting fees to Ben Stevens. Metcalfe complained to the APOC last year that those fees were thinly disguised "kickbacks," but the commission only ruled on a technicality: Ben Stevens' failure to disclose his chairmanship of the board in 2004. It fined him $150.

Ben Stevens resigned from the marketing board about six months ago, according to its executive director, Bill Hines. Hines wouldn't say whether he has recently spoken to federal agents.

"I think that's between me and the FBI," said Hines, an employee of the U.S. Commerce Department.

Ben Stevens was a member of the Senate Ethics Committee and some of the seized documents were connected to that committee, including a 2003 ethics complaint against former Sen. Jerry Ward. An investigation concluded the complaint was without merit.

Daily News reporter Richard Mauer can be reached at rmauer@adn.com or 257-4345 and Daily News reporter Lisa Demer can be reached a ldemer@adn.com or 257-4390.