[JURIST] Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service searched the home of US Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) [official website] Monday as part of an investigation into Stevens' relationship with VECO Corp. founder Bill Allen, who pleaded guilty earlier this year to bribing public officials. According to investigators, Allen oversaw an expansive renovation of Stevens' home in 2000. Stevens is cooperating with the investigation, and has declined to comment until after its conclusion when "all the facts can be established and the truth determined."

VECO Corp. [corporate website], an oil services and engineering company, has obtained millions of dollars in federal contracts. Allen and another VECO executive, Richard Smith, pleaded guilty [press release] in May "to providing more than $400,000 in corrupt payments to public officials from the state of Alaska." According to the DOJ:

Allen and Smith each pleaded guilty at hearings in federal court today in Anchorage, Alaska, to a three-count information charging them with: bribery; conspiracy to commit bribery, extortion under color of official right, and honest services mail and wire fraud; and conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service of the U.S. Department of Treasury. In filed court documents, Allen and Smith each admitted to conspiring with five current and former members of the Alaska Legislature – identified in court documents as State Representative A, State Representative B, State Representative C, State Senator A, and State Senator B – to provide illegal financial benefits to multiple Alaska elected officials in exchange for those officials' support on legislation pending before the Alaska State Legislature. Allen and Smith also pleaded guilty to one substantive count of bribery, and admitted that they provided greater than $400,000 in benefits to public officials from the state of Alaska in connection with the scheme.