MikeyF
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Wednesday, August 08, 2007Lolis Eric Elie
By now you've heard about how the senator's house was raided by the FBI.
The feds think that an oil-field services and engineering company that reaped tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts paid for costly renovations to the senator's home. Executives with the company have already pleaded guilty to bribing public officials.
What's more, in this era of family values, it seems the senator's son, who used to be president of the state Senate, was on the take as well. Court documents indicate that he got money from executives with that same oil-field services company.
Of course, when you're talking about a state with a large and growing reputation for corruption, the scandal story wouldn't be complete if only the male senator was implicated in wrongdoing and the female senator was left unscathed.
Turns out the female senator paid about $180,000 for some land that local real estate agents say is worth twice that much. To avoid further controversy, she's agreed to sell the land back.
Perhaps the only surprise to be found among these facts is that Louisiana is not the state whose officials are implicated in wrongdoing.
Snow-white reputation?
The tarnished state is Alaska.
The home that was raided belonged to 83-year-old Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in Senate history. His son, Ben Stevens, had served as the president of Alaska's Senate.
The executives who have pleaded guilty to paying bribes are Bill J. Allen, chairman of VECO Corp., and Rick Smith, VECO's vice president for community and government affairs. In May, they pleaded guilty to making more than $400,000 in illegal payments and benefits to public officials or their families. Both have since resigned from VECO.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/metro/index.ssf?/base/news-23/118655370428710.xml&coll=1
By now you've heard about how the senator's house was raided by the FBI.
The feds think that an oil-field services and engineering company that reaped tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts paid for costly renovations to the senator's home. Executives with the company have already pleaded guilty to bribing public officials.
What's more, in this era of family values, it seems the senator's son, who used to be president of the state Senate, was on the take as well. Court documents indicate that he got money from executives with that same oil-field services company.
Of course, when you're talking about a state with a large and growing reputation for corruption, the scandal story wouldn't be complete if only the male senator was implicated in wrongdoing and the female senator was left unscathed.
Turns out the female senator paid about $180,000 for some land that local real estate agents say is worth twice that much. To avoid further controversy, she's agreed to sell the land back.
Perhaps the only surprise to be found among these facts is that Louisiana is not the state whose officials are implicated in wrongdoing.
Snow-white reputation?
The tarnished state is Alaska.
The home that was raided belonged to 83-year-old Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in Senate history. His son, Ben Stevens, had served as the president of Alaska's Senate.
The executives who have pleaded guilty to paying bribes are Bill J. Allen, chairman of VECO Corp., and Rick Smith, VECO's vice president for community and government affairs. In May, they pleaded guilty to making more than $400,000 in illegal payments and benefits to public officials or their families. Both have since resigned from VECO.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/metro/index.ssf?/base/news-23/118655370428710.xml&coll=1
