A Bribery Scandal in Alaska

NOW
t r u t h o u t | Programming Note

Airdate: Friday, November 23, 2007, at 8:30 p.m. on PBS.
(Check local listings at http://www.pbs.org/now/sched.html.)

How far will an oil company go to get the politics they want? This time on NOW.

On Friday, November 23, at 8:30 p.m., NOW shines a bright light on the scandalous connection between VECO Corporation - an Alaska-based oil services company - and Alaska's old-boy Republican network. Two state legislators have been convicted in federal court for accepting bribes from VECO, while one more awaits trial. The FBI has video and audio evidence that reveal VECO executives shockingly handing out cash to those legislators in exchange for promises to roll back a tax on the oil industry. But that may only be the tip of the oily iceberg. NOW's Maria Hinojosa learns that dozens more lawmakers are being eyed in the growing scandal, including one of the country's most powerful politicians, Alaska US Senator Ted Stevens.

NOW investigates the bribes, the connections to big oil and the payoffs to obtain friendly tax policies.

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The NOW web site at www.pbs.org/now offers a web-exclusive report detailing how the oil and gas industry navigated Washington power structures during the past eight years. Using campaign contribution and lobbying data, the article connects the dots between the industry's biggest spenders and the favorable policy outcomes they received. The report also exposes the connections between Big Oil and 2008 presidential candidates.

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