Bill Allen, the central player in Alaska's long-running political corruption scandal, reported to a federal prison in California Tuesday, according to a Bureau of Prisons spokesperson.
Allen, former chief executive of oil field services company Veco Corp., pleaded guilty in 2007 to conspiracy, bribery and tax violations.
Former Veco vice president Rick Smith also reported to prison today in Sheridan, Ore. Smith, 64, who pleaded guilty to the same charges as Allen, was sentenced to serve 21 months. He's been assigned to serve his time in Sheridan's minimum security work camp, according to Sheridan spokesman John McCafferty.
Two more Alaskans, both former legislators, are in prison on federal corruption charges, and two others were sent to prison after convictions for corrupt acts involving oil tax legislation, but they are out while a judge evaluates whether they got a fair trial.
Allen, 72, has begun serving his three-year sentence at the Terminal Island federal correctional institution. Allen surrendered at the prison around 10 a.m. Pacific time, said Edmond Ross, a Bureau of Prisons spokesman in Washington, D.C.
Terminal Island is a low-security facility for men located between Long Beach and San Pedro, at the entrance to the Los Angeles Harbor. It's not one of the federal system's three designated medical facilities, but it does offer specialized and long-term health care, short of hospitalization, Ross said.
The prison is in an industrial area on a man-made rectangle of land, near shipyards and rail yards, canneries and the old Long Beach Naval Complex.
Inmates can glimpse the sea and watch ships go past. When cruise ships go by, "it's a special treat for the inmates," Ross said.
"It's not beachfront property," he said. But "it's a beautiful location, as prisons go."
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