Former VECO Chairman Bill Allen took the stand Wednesday afternoon detailing the company's background and how he became involved in Alaska politics. At its 2005 height, Allen estimated his billion dollar company had about 5,000 employees worldwide, about half of them here in Alaska. Allen said when Native corporations began to compete with his oil fields services company in the mid-eighties, he had to get involved in politics.

Allen said, "I got involved in politics. Otherwise, they'd push us out."

When prosecutors asked Allen about political fundraising he said, "Legislators, if they're working with the oil industry, I try to help them out with their campaign. Without having the money to do their ads, people are not going to know who they are."

Rick Smith, VECO's former Government and Public Affairs official apparently became key to Allen in the early 1990's.

"Rick told me, 'Hey, I can organize those fundraisers.... ' And he was really good at it," said Allen.

Those fundraisers also became key in the late eighties as Allen developed many friendships.

"Everybody, particularly on the Republican side, even some Democrats," said Allen.

Allen says that's how he met Pete Kott in the ninties. At VECO, Allen described the special bonus program where officials were reimbursed through bonuses if they contributed to VECO-approved candidates.

"You know, if you help the industry, most of our work came from the industry. If you are going to help

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the industry, then they should support the same legislators."

Oil taxation was particularly important to Allen. Allen told jurors how important PPT was going to be to the upcoming 2006 Legislative Session.

"As soon as I knew what it was called, I started talking to them (lawmakers)," said Allen.

That included Pete Kott. Allen described their relationship as "close." Late in the day prosecutors started replaying Allen's portions of the secret recordings. On the conversation where

Kott leaves a voicemail asking Allen for instructions, on the stand Allen told jurors, "He (Kott) already knew we wanted a gasline . If he needed a job, I'd give him a job."

When asked if he knew the feds were recording him, Allen replied, "If I knew that, I would not have said all of this stuff."

Also in court:

Besides a slew of reporters, the court room was also packed with well-known faces:

    Senator Fred Dyson
    Bruce Weyhrauch's legal team
    Ray Metcalfe
    Senator Bill Wieckowski
    Eddie Burke

To contact Matthew, call 907-273-3186.