Justice Department Questions Senate Bookkeeper in Stevens Corruption Probe

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Feds question bookkeeper in Stevens case

Justice Department Questions Senate Bookkeeper in Stevens Corruption Probe

MATT APUZZO
AP News

Jul 31, 2007 13:37 EDT

A Senate clerk who helped maintain Sen. Ted Stevens' personal financial records was recently called before a federal grand jury in a public corruption investigation that has been joined by the IRS and the Interior Department.

Barbara Flanders, who serves as a financial clerk for Stevens on the Commerce Committee, testified in the past several weeks and provided documents regarding the senator's bills, according to an attorney in the case who spoke on condition of anonymity because grand jury matters are secret by law.

Investigators are scrutinizing Stevens' relationship with oil field services contractor Bill Allen, who helped oversee a complicated renovation project that more than doubled the size of Stevens' home in 2000. Allen's company, VECO Inc., won tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts and has pleaded guilty to bribing Alaska lawmakers.

Federal agents raided Stevens' home Monday, photographing and videotaping its contents and leaving with a garbage bag full of unidentified items.

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