Bobrick and Begich:The Connection Continued

As previously stated on this blog, Bobrick was the Deputy Treasurer for Mark Begich in 2000.

During the testimony in the Anderson trial, Bobrick had this to say: http://www.ktuu.com/global/Story.asp?s=6745818

In an attempt to discredit Bobrick, Stockler brought up Bobrick's role in
other situations with criminal implications. Bobrick admitted he had once
asked his mother to make a campaign contribution, then, reimbursed her. And
in a recorded conversation with Prewitt in 2004, he talked about raising up
to $50,000 for Tony Knowles, saying he and Mayor Mark Begich were going "to
work to move heaven and earth to get Knowles elected."

In the conversation, Bobrick says he is working on an idea to raise money for Knowles, in what he called a "Bill Weimar-style fundraiser." Weimar is a man with long-standing connections to the corrections industry, and the
former owner of a company called Allvest, which was sold to Cornell.
Weimar is also a former client of Bobrick's.
In the same conversation, Bobrick talks about gathering up people he trusts to be donors, including his parents and Weimar, then bringing the contributions to a Knowles fundraiser hosted by Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich and his wife. The mayor, Bobrick adds, would bring "real people" with "real money."
In a short phone call Wednesday to clarify what he meant, Bobrick said the Knowles fundraiser at the Begich house was a regularly-scheduled campaign event,and that neither the mayor nor his wife knew Bobrick had considered bringing illegally-funneled campaign contributions to the event.
He went on to say that he never followed through because he realized it was wrong, and a stupid idea.
No evidence has been presented that Mayor Begich had knowledge of what Bobrick was proposing, and in court Bobrick testified the campaign contribution scheme never came to be.
In the same recorded conversation, which was transcribed and shown to jurors on an overhead screen, Bobrick alludes that he and Weimar had worked on something similar in the past.

He went on to say Weimar had once come up with a stack of checks for a prior campaign, totaling as much as $65,000. Again, no evidence, other than transcribed excerpts of the conversation in which Bobrick makes these remarks, was presented in court regarding these claims.

In a not too publicized portion of FBI recordings the conversation below took place between Bobrick and Prewitt. Keep in mind Mark Marlow owned the building and contributed to the Begich campaign in 2000.

The fact that they’ve gone to the annex in the McKayBuilding, uhh….we were actually prepared to make the pitch to the Downtown Community Council even
without Tim Marshall, because of the fact that they’re pumping so much money
into the Annex…
Prewitt: Oh, that’s great.
Bobrick: It’s suddenly
become like a top priority of the Begich Administration,
Prewitt: Oh my,
cool…
Bobrick: So they’re going to go out and start bragging about this, and
ribbon cutting, and standing there……..The Mayor, and the Assembly and everybody,
to announce the seventy-five new jobs and the stabilization and expansion of
East Anchorage…
Prewitt: Wow
Bobrick: Based on the work that
Cornell’s…….uh…
Prewitt: What does Cornell need to do for Begich or the
Assembly Members besides hire you ?
Bobrick: Nothing.
Prewitt: Is
there anything ?
Bobrick: What would be great if I could get them to
hire Tom Anderson through me, then we could lock up a lot more of the
state.
Prewitt: What could Tom do ?
Bobrick: Be our Boy in Juneau.

Keep in mind that Mark Begich had campaigned on this building and went as so far as to talk about it in his 2006 State of the City Address which can be found here:

http://www.muni.org/mayor/2006Aug07SOCSpeech.cfm

"...And perhaps most welcome of all – a total revamp of the old McKay Building. Just last week, we joined with developer Marc Marlow to formally reopen this longtime eyesore on our city’s landscape.I can tell you, the views from McKinley
Tower are spectacular and its reopening will help rejuvenate the eastern part of
downtown."

Now in today's testimony during the Kott trial, Bill Allen had this to say:
http://community.adn.com/adn/node/110577#comment

"....Allen said the bonus program - in which Veco execs got money that they were to spend on political donations and, Allen said, charities - was set up by Veco exec Pete Leathard. If you ever look through old APOC records, you’ll often see five or six Veco officials giving large checks to the same candidate on the same day."

If you go to the APOC website for 2000 on Mark Begich, you will find the following contributor's from VECO: https://webapp.state.ak.us/apoc/individ.jsp?filer=BEGICH%2C+MARK&offset=1


1
04/25/2000
$500.00
ALLEN, BILL J. Anchorage Oil/Gas Extraction
04/26/2000
2
04/25/2000
$500.00
ALLEN, JEANNETTE Anchorage Other
06/07/2000
3
04/25/2000
$500.00
ALLEN, MARK J Anchorage Oil/Gas Extraction
05/05/2000

58
04/26/2000
$500.00
CHAN, ROGER J. Anchorage Oil/Gas Extraction
05/05/2000

150
04/25/2000
$500.00
LEATHARD, PETER Anchorage Oil/Gas Extraction
05/05/2000

257
04/25/2000
$500.00
SMITH, RICHARD L. Anchorage Oil/Gas Extraction
05/05/2000

Other players in the FBI investigation are found also.

223
10/20/1999
$500.00
PREWITT, FRANK Anchorage Other
11/05/1999
224
02/09/2000
$500.00
PREWITT, FRANK Anchorage Other
02/11/2000

Bobrick spoke of setting up or working on a "Weimar" style fundraiser.

282
10/15/1999
$500.00
WEIMAR, WILLIAM C. Anchorage Health
11/08/1999
283
10/15/1999
$500.00
WEIMAR, WILLIAM C. Anchorage Health
01/31/2000

And then you have the issue of Rubini and Hyde with JL Properties:

241
10/13/1999
$500.00
RUBINI, JOHN Anchorage Legal
10/18/1999

138
10/18/1999
$500.00
HYDE, LEONARD Anchorage Real Estate
11/02/1999
139
01/19/2000
$500.00
HYDE, LEONARD Anchorage Real Estate
02/15/2000

There are now too many links to not have a full blown investigation in the matter. To be continued...........