Ted Stevens’ Federal Favors For VECO

VECO Corporation And Its Subsidiaries Have Received More Than $95 Million In Federal Contracts Since 2000. Between 2000 and 2007, VECO and its subsidiaries were awarded a total of $95,777,803.40 in a total of 190 federal contracts. [Contracts, FedSpending, Retrieved 8/20/2008]

Stevens Helped Veco Get Paid By Pakistani Government.
According to a Los Angeles Times report, Veco had built a $70 million pipeline for Pakistan, but the Pakistani government hadn’t yet paid for it. When Pakistan wanted congressional help on a trade issue in 1999, Stevens was “positioned to block the necessary legislation” while chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that was considering legislation to remove sanctions against Pakistan. Before long, Pakistan’s representatives in Washington concluded that their trade bill would go nowhere until Pakistan settled with VECO and its partners. Pakistan agreed to arbitration. The bill sailed through. [The Senator’s Sons, Los Angeles Times, 6/22/2003]

According to an Anchorage Daily News article, Pete Leathard, former president of Veco, hired Ben Stevens because he “knows his way around the government maze in Washington, D.C.” and because he helped Veco get paid for work on a World Bank-sponsored pipeline project in Pakistan. [Consulting work pays off for some state legislators, Anchorage Daily News, 7/4/2004]

FBI Investigates Science Contracts Awarded To Veco While Stevens Served In Position To Steer Contracts Their Way.
The Anchorage Daily News reported that in 1999, VECO was awarded a five-year National Science Foundation contract worth $70 million to provide logistics and support for polar research without having any previous experience in the field. In 2004, VECO won a seven-year follow up contract worth up to $100 million. Ted Stevens would have been in a position to help steer money to VECO through his seat on the Appropriations Committee, and had oversight over the National Science Foundation through his seat on the Commerce Committee. There is no evidence that Stevens directly steered the contract to VECO, but his support for funding of Arctic research increased at the same time that VECO became a large provider of logistics for scientists. [FBI Investigates Science Contracts Awarded VECO, Anchorage Daily News, 8/16/2007]

Ted trains Russian oil field workers for VECO
According to a Los Angeles Times report, in the fall of 1999, Sen. Ted Stevens earmarked $2.5 million in Labor Department funds to train Russian oil field workers in Alaska. Veco executive Bill Allen pushed for the grant because they were “having a difficult time finding skilled workers for their oil and gas projects on Sakhalin Island in Russia’s Far East. [Firm at heart of indictment figured in Pakistan dispute, Los Angeles Times, 7/30/2008]