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Bill Allen, Key Stevens Trial Witness, Gets Three Years

A federal judge sentenced former oil executive Bill Allen, the key witness in the public corruption trial of then-Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens (R), to three years in prison and fined him $750,000, the Anchorage Daily News reported.Allen assisted federal prosecutors in the investigation, nicknamed “Polar Pen,— which also targeted state elected officials, and testified in numerous trials since he pleaded guilty to bribery, conspiracy and tax violations in 2007.In preparation for his sentencing last week, Allen’s defense team released a 2007 summary of “stipulated facts— in which Allen confessed to “additional criminal activity.—Among his admissions, Allen told the Justice Department that he had provided Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) with more than $100,000 worth of gifts that the Congressman never reported. Young has not been charged with wrongdoing.Allen also admitted to lavishing Stevens with gifts, including renovations to his Girdwood, Alaska, home.A federal jury declared Stevens guilty of failing to report gifts from Allen and others in October 2008, but that verdict was overturned in April because of the Justice Department’s repeated failure to turn over to Stevens’ lawyers evidence that could have been useful in his defense. That evidence included investigators notes from an early 2008 interview with Allen that contradicted what Allen declared on the witness stand during the trial.In court, Allen testified that he had spoken with Stevens’ friend Bob Persons about the Senator’s requests for bills for the renovation of his home and that Persons told Allen that the Senator was just “covering his a–.—But the notes of his April interview indicate that Allen “did not recall talking to Bob Persons regarding giving a bill to the defendant. This statement by Allen during the April 15 interview was inconsistent with Allen’s recollection at trial, where he described a conversation with Persons,— according to court documents.

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