Alaska political corruption probeとは 意味・読み方・使い方

Alaska political corruption probe refers to a widespread investigation from 2003 to the present by the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Internal Revenue Service into political corruption of lawmakers in the Alaska State Legislature, as well as Congressman Don Young and former US Senator Ted Stevens. The investigation focused in particular on lawmakers' official actions in relation to the oil industry, fisheries, and private corrections industry. The remaining Republican Senator from Alaska, Lisa Murkowski, has not been implicated in the probe, but returned a Kenai River Front property^{[dead link]} to close associate Bob Penny^{[dead link]}, a real estate developer and longtime donor of the Alaska Republican Delegation. It was sold to her at about a third of market value, was not declared in her congressional disclosure forms, and along with Stevens and Young she has affected earmarks that a federally funded road be built to it. As of November 2008 the investigation has resulted in indictments against five current and former Alaska state legislators on corruption charges, as well as the indictment and conviction of the late US Senator Ted Stevens on seven felony counts of failure to disclose gifts (later vacated). In addition, there have been guilty pleas by two executives of the oilfield services company VECO Corporation to charges of bribery and conspiracy to impede the Internal Revenue Service. A number of Alaska businessmen, lobbyists and others have also been either indicted, convicted or otherwise implicated.