Ex-governor's aide to plead guilty in Alaska fraud case

"No one is more aware of my inappropriate conduct than I am. For this I sincerely apologize to all Alaskans," Clark said yesterday in an e-mailed statement.

"Not only were my violations of Alaska's campaign finance laws wrong and unethical, they were stupid," he said. Clark was flying to Anchorage yesterday and unavailable for an interview.

Efforts to reach Murkowski, a former United States senator and father of current Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, also weren't successful.

The plea agreement states that Clark conspired with VECO to hide from state election regulators more than $68,000 in polls and consultants' fees for Frank Murkowski's failed reelection bid two years ago.

Clark knew the campaign contributions were illegal because the money was not disclosed on filings submitted to the Alaska Public Offices Commission, the state election watchdog organization, court documents said.

Murkowski was soundly defeated in the 2006 Republican gubernatorial primary by the eventual winner, Sarah Palin, who campaigned on ethics reform.

Clark faces a sentence of up to nearly four years in prison, plus three years' supervised release and a fine ranging from $7,500 to $75,000, according to the plea agreement.

Clark said in his statement that he had taken an illegal fund-raising "shortcut . . . because I saw myself as 'too busy' to make the phone calls that I could have made to potential contributors to legally raise the money."

Palin said Clark's admissions are "an indication that the federal corruption inquiry is very far reaching."

With his plea, Clark agreed to cooperate "in all federal, state and local investigations and prosecutions as requested," court documents said.

VECO's former chief executive, Bill Allen, and a former vice president, Rick Smith, also are cooperating. Both have pleaded guilty to bribing Alaska lawmakers, but neither has been sentenced.

Two former state lawmakers have been convicted of accepting bribes from VECO; one is serving his sentence in a federal prison in Oregon; another awaits sentencing. A third former lawmaker awaits trial.

During testimony in federal corruption trials, Allen and Smith already have implicated US Senator Ted Stevens; his son Ben Stevens, a former Alaska Senate president; and current state Senator John Cowdery. None of the three has been charged and each denies any wrongdoing.