The Investigation

May 2007: Veco chief executive Bill J. Allen and Rick Smith, a vice president of the company, plead guilty to bribery and conspiracy charges, admitting that they provided more than $400,000 in illegal payments to five members of the state House and state Senate, as well as "other public officials." They agree to work with the government on cases against the lawmakers who allegedly took the money. One was an unidentified former state senator whose consulting payments cited in the plea agreement matched payments reported by Ben Stevens.

July 2007: FBI and IRS agents raid Ted Stevens's house in Alaska. Contractors have told a federal grand jury that Veco executives oversaw a lavish remodeling of Stevens's house in Girdwood. Stevens says that he and his wife, Catherine, paid more than $130,000 of their own money for the work.

September 2007: Kott is convicted of bribery, conspiracy and extortion. He was accused of taking nearly $9,000 in payments and of accepting a promised job from Veco in exchange for pushing through the legislature a new production tax that the company favored. Allen testifies at the trial that he oversaw the rebuilding of Ted Stevens's house, visiting the home about once a month, and that he gave the senator furniture.

November 2007: Kohring is convicted of bribery, conspiracy and attempted extortion. He was accused of accepting more than $2,000 in cash from Allen, as well as trying to get an additional $17,000 from company officials to pay off a credit card bill, in exchange for taking Veco's position on the production-tax law.

July 2008: Cowdery is indicted on conspiracy and bribery charges, accused of working with Veco executives to buy the vote of another senator on the production-tax law. His indictment means that, of the legislators targeted in the 2006 FBI raids, only Ben Stevens is not either indicted, convicted or cooperating with investigators.