Alaska political corruption probe

The Alaska political corruption probe refers to a 2003 to 2010 widespread investigation by the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Internal Revenue Service into political corruption of nine then-current or former Alaskan state lawmakers, as well as Republican US Representative Don Young and then-US Senator, Republican Ted Stevens. Sometimes referred to as 'The Corrupt Bastard's Club' or the 'Operation Polar Pen', the investigation focused on the oil industry, fisheries and for-profit prison industries.

By Spring of 2006, the FBI set up in a Baranof hotel suite just three blocks away from the capitol building in Juneau. From their position in the hotel suite, they gathered evidence, such as a videotape of VECO's CEO Bill Allen arranging paper money for legislators, and made other observations By August 2008, the investigation resulted in indictments against six sitting or former Alaska Republican state legislators on corruption charges. In August 2008 US Senator Ted Stevens was indicted and, by October, he was convicted in Washington, D.C. on seven felony counts of failure to disclose gifts. The convictions, eight days before the November 2008 election, resulted in his narrow loss, after 40 years in the U.S. Senate, to Democrat Mark Begich. His convictions were later set aside because of prosecutorial misconduct and the United States Department of Justice ended further prosecution.

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