Senator’s $5,000 pays $100,000
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) quickly turned a $5,000 Florida condo investment into a profit of more than $100,000 in a questionable transaction that federal prosecutors would like to introduce as evidence at his trial on charges that he lied on financial disclosure forms.
The investment and other details of the case were disclosed late Thursday in a flurry of court papers filed by prosecutors and defense lawyers. The trial is tentatively scheduled to start Sept. 22.
Stevens was indicted last month by a federal grand jury on charges of not reporting on Senate financial disclosure forms that he accepted more than $250,000 in gifts and home renovations from executives of Veco, a now defunct oil services company in Alaska. Prosecutors allege that Stevens helped Veco and its executives on a variety of federal and state issues.
Veco’s former chief executive, Bill Allen, pleaded guilty last year to bribing public officials and is expected to testify.
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