ANCHORAGE — Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has picked a former state senator who was once a subject of a corruption investigation by federal authorities to work in his administration.
Former state Senate President Ben Stevens will serve as one of the Republican governor’s three policy advisers, focusing on transportation, legislation and fishing, Dunleavy spokesman Jeff Turner said.
Stevens, a Republican, served five years in the state Senate after Gov. Tony Knowles appointed him to an open seat in 2001. He didn’t seek re-election in 2006 amid a federal investigation, Alaska’s Energy Desk reported Wednesday.
The FBI had raided Stevens’ office and those of at least five other state lawmakers that summer.
The focus on Stevens involved his consulting work for oil-field services company Veco while he was in the Senate. He had received more than $240,000 over five years, but the Republican senator never said what his work entailed to earn the money.
Stevens didn’t respond to a request for comment by Alaska’s Energy Desk.
During the trial of a different state lawmaker in 2007, a Veco executive testified that he bribed Stevens and another senator.
Prosecutors never charged Stevens, and he denied any wrongdoing.
Stevens has been working as the president of Cook Inlet Tug and Barge. He said last year that he considering running for the Republican nomination for governor, but he never entered the race.
Stevens is a son of the late U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens.
• This is an Associated Press report.
