Stevens Fears Impact of Current Probe

Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska gestures during an interview with The Associated Press, in his office on Capitol Hill in Washington in this April 12, 2007 file photo. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke, File) (Lauren Victoria Burke - AP)

Over the past six years, VECO executives and the company itself contributed more than $119,000 to Stevens' political organizations, according to tracking by Political Money Line, an Internet database. Of that amount, Allen contributed $20,000. Stevens and Allen also are longtime friends and partners in a race horse investment.

The remodeling job at Stevens' home was fraught with problems at the start. He estimated it would cost about $85,000 and told city building officials he would be his own contractor.

The plan was to raise Stevens' single-level home and, beneath it, construct a new first floor with two bedrooms, a game room and sauna. Complete with a wraparound porch, the completed project would be twice the size of the original, modest house in the town of Girdwood, about 40 miles south of Anchorage. Building records don't indicate how things went wrong, but somehow the framing was botched and help was called in to fix it.

Carpenter Augie Paone has said he was hired by an employee of VECO. Rather than submit his bills to Stevens, Paone said he submitted them to VECO founder Allen.

Paone told a federal grand jury that he didn't find anything unusual about the project, people close to the case said.

Once Allen approved the work, Stevens paid for it with a series of checks, according to two people close to the investigation. They spoke on condition of anonymity because grand jury matters are secret by law. Stevens would not discuss the details of the investigation, including why the checks were drawn on an apparently new account and where the money came from.

The carpentry bill alone exceeded $100,000, and contractor Tony Hannah said Stevens paid an additional $3,720 to have the house jacked up. The FBI has those records, and agents recently examined Stevens' building permits, which do not mention VECO or any of the contractors who worked on the job. They also have begun questioning Stevens' former Capitol Hill aides.

Nestled at the base of the Chugach Mountains, Girdwood is a haven for skiers who love the wide-open trails and colossal snowfalls. It also attracts some of Alaska's well-heeled professionals.

For his first three decades as a senator, Stevens was poor by Senate standards.

In 1997, his largest assets were his savings in the Senate Credit Union, worth between $100,001 and $250,000 and three $50,001-$100,000 investments. One was in JLS Properties, which owned two properties in Alaska.

But after 1997, the year that Stevens became chairman of the Appropriations Committee, he began to leave the Senate's poorhouse.

Stevens' business partners in JLS were Alaska developers Jonathan Rubini and Leonard Hyde. The partnership initially invested in an office park near the Anchorage airport and a two-story office building.