Former Veco chief executive Bill Allen should be sentenced to just fewer than four years in prison and fined $750,000 for his role as Alaska's corrupter in chief, federal prosecutors say.

"The actions of Bill Allen were corrupt, sustained, and damaging to the integrity of the legislative process," prosecutors said.

The government's recommendation was filed late Wednesday, a week before Allen and another Veco executive involved in a wide-ranging corruption scheme, Rick Smith, are due to be sentenced on their 2007 guilty pleas to conspiracy, bribery and tax charges.

The two men worked extensively with the FBI and prosecutors, giving detailed evidence in multiple debriefings about their illegal activities and making recorded phone calls at the government's request in an effort to elicit admissions from politicians. They also testified at trials.

Smith, once Veco's vice president and its unofficial lobbyist, should be dealt a 42-month prison sentence and a fine of $7,500 to $75,000, prosecutors recommended in a separate filing Wednesday.

Lawyers for Allen and Smith are asking for significantly lighter prison sentences and fines. The sentencing recommendations were accompanied by dozens of pages of documents filed by prosecutors and defense attorneys. Some of those documents revealed long-secret evidence involving U.S. Rep. Don Young, who has been known for more than two years to be under investigation by federal authorities.

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