Prosecutors detail Stevens’s ‘scheme’ to hide gifts

Sen. Ted Stevens devised a meticulous scheme to hide from the public hundreds of thousands of dollars of gifts even though he knew he was violating the law, government prosecutors alleged in federal court Thursday. 

In the opening arguments of the Alaska Republican’s highly anticipated criminal case, Brenda Morris of the Justice Department detailed more than $250,000 of gifts that Stevens received from the oil-services firm Veco Corp., and said the senator “knowingly and willfully” refused to disclose them on the Senate’s annual financial disclosure forms.

{mosads}“This is a simple case about a public official who took hundreds and thousands [of dollars'] worth of free financial benefits and then took away the public’s right to know that information,” Morris told jurors in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The biggest undisclosed gift, Morris said, was extensive renovations on his chalet in Girdwood, Alaska, a ski town about 45 minutes south of Anchorage. The government plans to produce evidence showing that Bill Allen, a former chief executive of the now-defunct Veco, made renovations that included new electrical wiring, roofs, porches, flooring and an addition of an entire floor.

“You’ll learn that the defendant never paid Veco a dime,” Morris said.

Later Thursday, John Hess, a former architect at Veco, who allegedly designed the additional floor, will testify on the government’s behalf.

Stevens, who faces reelection in November, has pleaded not guilty to the seven felony charges he is facing for making false statements on his financial disclosure forms. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison for each count.

Stevens’s defense team plans to make its opening statements Thursday morning.