Source: Yahoo News - 10/27/2008

Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska has been convicted for failing to report gifts from VECO Corp., the corporation that built the Barbados jail. Stevens maintains that he is innocent.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska was convicted of corruption on Monday, a verdict that could endanger the Republican’s political future and help Democrats expand control of the Senate in the November 4 election.

Stevens, 84, was convicted on all seven counts of lying on Senate disclosure forms by failing to report more than $250,000 in home renovations and other gifts from an oil executive.

Here are some of Sen. Stevens gifts:

Prosecutors charged that Bill Allen, the former head of oil-services firm VECO Corp., provided extensive home renovations for Stevens’ house in the ski-resort town of Girdwood, near Anchorage. Allen and others also provided gifts including a $2,700 massage chair, a $29,000 fish sculpture, stained-glass artwork, a gas grill and furniture.

I seem to recall that a Bajan politician had work done on his house, but the circumstances may have been different.