Homes Raided In Rep. Weldon Influence Probe

Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., responds to a question during a news conference at the Delaware County Government Center in Media Pa., Monday, Oct. 16, 2006. The FBI is investigating whether Weldon used his influence to secure lobbying and consulting contracts for his daughter, two people familiar with the inquiry said Saturday, Oct. 14, 2006. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) (Matt Rourke - AP)

Weldon faces a difficult reelection campaign against a retired vice admiral, Democrat Joseph A. Sestak Jr., and has fallen behind in some polls. With 10 terms under his belt, Weldon is a House veteran but has not faced a real challenge in years.

His district gave Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry 53 percent of the vote in 2004. Sestak has painted him as out of touch with his district.

Karen Weldon and Sexton registered to lobby for Itera on Sept. 13, 2002, stating that they wanted to help the firm sell gas and oil products to the United States. The registration was terminated two years later. But Senate records do not list any lobbying payments to the pair from Itera.

Rep. Weldon said that he never knew who his daughter's clients were. "I've never helped my daughter get anything. My kids are qualified on their own," he said.

Weldon assailed the news reports as politically motivated. He blamed a 2004 complaint filed by the liberal-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which is led by Melanie Sloan, a former prosecutor who also has been a Democratic staff member on the House Judiciary Committee.

That complaint was based on a lengthy 2004 report by the Los Angeles Times that described the meteoric rise of Solutions North America and its relationship to Itera, which has long been dogged by international controversy over its obscured ownership.

The company, formed in 1992, made huge profits as an intermediary in natural gas sales between the state-controlled Russian company Gazprom and former Soviet republics. It eventually purchased some of Gazprom's gas fields and other assets for nominal sums, estimated by critics to be billions of dollars below their real value, and became a rival.

Oil and gas traders and Russian experts have long suggested that Itera's real owners are former senior Gazprom executives and that the company was established in the United States as a vehicle to transfer money out of Russia and into their pockets. The company could not be reached to comment yesterday, but it has previously denied that claim.

Itera drew attention for cutting off natural gas to Georgia shortly before the winter of 2002, when it tried to collect a $90 million debt from the Georgian government during a flare-up of tensions with the Moscow government. Weldon helped mediate the dispute, persuading the company to supply the gas.

The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Los Angeles Times reported that Itera's representatives signed a $500,000 contract in 2002 with Solutions North America. That year, Rep. Weldon complained to the U.S. Trade and Development Agency about its cancellation of a grant to Itera to explore a gas field in Siberia.

"Itera is a great source for American companies to be involved in joint projects," he said during a visit to the company's offices in 2002.

At a January 2003 opening of Itera's U.S. headquarters, Weldon said: "I can think of no other company that represents what Russia is today and offers for the future."

Four people listed in corporate records as Itera officers or directors wrote checks totaling $8,000 to Weldon's campaign on April 20, according to PoliticalMoneyLine, a Web site that tracks campaign contributions.

Research director Lucy Shackelford and staff researcher Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.