Kohring bribery trial set to begin

ANCHORAGE — Months of preparation, rumors and state political intrigue come to a head Monday when the trial of former state Rep. Vic Kohring of Wasilla gets underway.

The former Republican lawmaker has repeatedly maintained his innocence to federal charges of bribery, corruption and conspiracy. Kohring has waited and watched as fellow former lawmakers Tom Anderson and Pete Kott were tried and convicted of similar charges. At the center of the corruption is oil services company VECO and its former CEO, Bill Allen. Allen has testified he paid Kott, Kohring and others in return for favorable votes on the Petroleum Profits Tax.

Many of Allen’s ex-legislator friends seem to have needed money.

Former Eagle River state Rep. Pete Kott, convicted last month on three counts of bribery, extortion and conspiracy, recently asked to have his trial thrown out. Kott admitted taking thousands from Allen, but said he was a friend of Allen’s and only took the $9,000 as a friend.

The several thousand dollars prosecutors allege Kohring accepted from Allen was also only one friend to another. The money was mainly for Kohring’s stepdaughter, Anjuta, the former lawmaker says in pretrial documents. In a letter from attorney Wayne Anthony Ross to Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Bottini on behalf of Kohring, Ross says Kohring and Allen shared a penchant for Russian life partners and a commonality in the raising of their daughters.

“What Vic and Allen had in common with their respective Russian life partners created a special bond and friendship between Vic and Allen,” Ross says in the letter.

The letter, sent in January, goes on to defend Kohring, 44, against implied allegations in several video and audio recordings made by federal investigators. Ross and Kohring attended a meeting where Bottini presented the recordings. In the letter Ross says the government would waste its efforts by prosecute Kohring.

“Vic understands now how he foolishly placed himself in a position where he and his actions could be subjected to scrutiny and misinterpretation,” Ross says. “However, … Vic never sold his vote for a gift.”

Ross describes the scene in one video: Room 604 of the Baranof Hotel in Juneau and Kohring stops by his friend’s room to chat. With debt collectors on his back, Kohring asks Allen and VECO VP Rick Smith about a loan to pay back his debt. Neither Smith nor Allen seemed excited by the prospect of loaning Kohring $17,000, so Kohring dropped the issue, Ross says.

Repeated phone calls to federal prosecutors for response to the claims made in Ross’ letter were not returned.

But the video shows Allen giving Kohring some money to use for “Easter presents for Vic’s stepdaughter [Anjuta],” Ross says. Allen also gives Kohring some how-to advice for his stepdaughter’s Easter egg hunt. Ross argues that Allen’s gift to Kohring’s stepdaughter was “unsolicited and unexpected.” This is not the only occasion Allen gave Kohring’s stepdaughter a gift. After a phone conversation at a restaurant in Douglas, Allen “gave Vic some money to buy things for Vic’s stepdaughter, as he has on several occasions,” Ross says.

Ross argues Kohring’s helpful demeanor has caused him undue grief. When Kohring was recorded asking Allen, “What can I do to help?” and “let me know what I [can] do to help,” Kohring’s attorney says what was heard was “typical Vic Kohring” — something Kohring would say to anyone, not just people who buy gifts for his family.

Chief District Court Judge John Sedwick denied Kohring’s recent request to dismiss the case against him and a motion to move the trial out of state. Kohring claims the government denied his Sixth Amendment right to counsel when state Sen. Fred Dyson advised Kohring to work with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Sedwick also denied Kohring’s request to suppress evidence found during an FBI search of his Wasilla office in August 2006. Kohring said he hadn’t been read his Miranda rights nor had he been allowed to remain silent. The government contests that federal investigators had a search warrant but did not use it because Kohring allowed the search.