Tom Anderson

Thomas T. Anderson (August 4, 1967 – February 10, 2024 and was sentenced in October 2007 to 60 months imprisonment to commence at the Federal Prison Camp in Sheridan, Oregon, on December 3, 2007. Anderson was one of seven legislators indicted, including U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, State Senator John Cowdery, former Speaker of the House Pete Kott, State Representative Bruce Weyhrauch, State Representative Vic Kohring and State Representative Beverly Masek.

Early life and career Anderson was born in Anchorage, one of two sons of Col. Tom R. Anderson, former director of the Alaska State Troopers and later general manager of the Sullivan Arena, and his wife Christiane. Anderson attended Muldoon Elementary School and Clark Junior High,

Consulting business Anderson registered for a business license for a consulting business called Alaska Strategic Consultants on November 9, 1999. In 2001, Anderson, through his consulting business, had six clients, each of which paid him over $1,000. The clients included the electronic parts supplier Frigid North and the bar, restaurant, and liquor trade association Anchorage Cabaret, Hotel, Restaurant and Retailers Association (CHARR). In 2002, Anderson, acting as CHARR's executive director, received $40,800 from the association.

Legislative career

23rd Alaska Legislature In 2002 Anderson, then serving as executive director of the Anchorage Cabaret, Hotel, Restaurant and Retailers Association (CHARR), a trade association of Anchorage-area bars and restaurants, ran as a Republican against Democrat Owen Carey for Alaska House District 19, covering the Muldoon area of Anchorage.

With other legislators, Anderson was sworn into office at the state capital in Juneau as a member of the 23rd Alaska Legislature on January 21, 2003. Anderson served as chair of the House Labor and Commerce Committee and Vice-Chair of the House Judiciary Committee. He was also a member of the House committees on Community and Regional Affairs and Administrative Regulation Review, the Finance Subcommittees in the Administration, Corrections, Public Safety, and Revenue committees, and, during the first legislative session (in 2003), the Conference Committee on SJR 8.

During the first legislative session in 2003, Anderson championed House Bill 49, of which he was co-sponsor, to expand the state DNA database by requiring DNA samples from all convicted felons; any person convicted of a felony or misdemeanor crime against a person, such as assault; and anyone convicted of a misdemeanor sex offense. The bill applied the DNA sample requirement retroactively to people currently imprisoned or on parole for those crimes, as well as anyone required to register as a sex offender. Some serious juvenile offenders were also included under HB 49. The bill enjoyed wide bipartisan support, and was signed into law by Gov. Frank Murkowski on June 13, 2003.

In the second legislative session in 2004, Anderson was the House sponsor of a "payday loan" bill to regulate short-term, high-interest loans. The bill was passed and signed into law by Gov. Frank Murkowski in June 2004. Critics charges that the new law did not regulate loaners enough, still permitting them to charge fees for payday loans that amounted to interest rates of over 300 percent when calculated on an annual percentage basis. An Associated Press wire story about the bill noted that Anderson had received campaign contributions of $500 each (for a total of $1000) from the two co-owners of Cash Alaska, a payday lending company that had also hired former state senator Tim Kelly to push for the bill. (The Senate sponsor of the bill, John Cowdery, had received a $500 campaign contribution from one of the owners of the business).

Northeast Community Council Anderson played a significant role over two years from 2002 to 2004 in changing the composition of Anchorage's Northeast Community Council to reflect more conservative political and economic views. Anderson encouraged friends and allies, including pastors and members of the locally influential Anchorage Baptist Temple, to pack the town meeting-style community council elections.

In July 2004, Anderson was criticized in an Anchorage Daily News editorial for signing a $10,000 contract in 2003 with the Alaska oilfield services company VECO Corporation to consult "on local government and community council affairs." Anderson had earlier told the Anchorage Daily News that he'd been approached by VECO after the end of the 2003 legislative session because it was aware he'd done similar consulting work before he became a legislator. He told the newspaper that most of his work for VECO was in seeking out civic and charitable events for the company to get involved in, and that he also monitored Anchorage's community councils to see if there were zoning cases or other issues under discussion that might affect VECO. The newspaper noted that Anderson had received about $4,000 in campaign contributions from VECO employees or their spouses in the 2002 election that won him his first term in the Alaska House. By July 2004 he had received at least $3,500 in VECO-related contributions for his 2004 reelection bid.

Members of the community council later recalled Anderson attending all their meetings during 2003, and assumed he was attending as their representative in the state legislature. They did not learn he was there as a consultant for VECO until 2004, when his state financial disclosure form was filed with the Alaska Public Offices Commission, as required by law.

By the April 2006 election for Northeast Community Council, the effects of the 2004 takeover had been partially reversed, leaving the council nearly half and half liberal and conservative.

24th Alaska Legislature In 2004, Anderson ran for reelection to the Alaska House of Representatives. He defeated fellow Republican Louis Mayo in the August primary and in the November 2 general election defeated Democratic challenger Peggy Robinson.

In September 2005 it was disclosed that Anderson and Lesil McGuire, a fellow Republican representative from Anchorage, had married during the summer and that Anderson was moving out of his district to live with McGuire in her South Anchorage residence. Anderson stated that he intended to serve out the remainder of his term and not run for re-election. Alaska law specifies that legislative candidates must have lived in their district for at least one year immediately before filing for office, but nothing is said in the statute about legislators being required to maintain residence in their district for the entire course of their term.

Consulting work while in legislature + Outside income reported by Tom Andersonto Alaska Public Offices Commission, 2003–2005

In 2006 after the end of the regular 2006 legislative session, Anderson registered with the Municipality of Anchorage as a municipal lobbyist and worked briefly again for Anchorage CHARR In July Anderson was hired by the Anchorage Home Builders Association for $2,500 per month. Anderson's office was not searched, but as it became clear that the legislators' ties to VECO Corporation was one target of the raids, Anderson, along with Sen. Ben Stevens (whose office had been searched), became the subject of articles in the Anchorage Daily News scrutinizing Anderson's and Stevens' outside incomes as consultants.

Bribery case

Indictment and arrest On December 7, 2006, Anderson was arrested on a federal warrant at his home by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was held overnight in the Anchorage jail. Anderson had been indicted the previous day on seven counts, including two counts of extortion, one count of bribery, one count of conspiracy, and three counts of money laundering involving the use of a sham corporation to hide the origin of the bribery payments.

Anderson was specifically accused of accepting a share of $26,000 from a private corrections company funneled to him through a shell corporation called Pacific Publishing that was set up by a lobbyist, identified in Anderson's charging documents as "Lobbyist A" and later identified as prominent Anchorage lobbyist Bill Bobrick, to disguise the source of payments. Unbeknownst to Anderson or Bobrick, their contact with the private corporation's company was a confidential source of the FBI working undercover. According to federal prosecutors, the private corrections company — unidentified in the court documents but widely believed to be Cornell Companies — was not implicated in the plot, and had been unaware of the FBI investigation until Anderson's indictment and arrest. The confidential informant in the case was Frank Prewitt, a former commissioner of the Alaska Department of Corrections who took a job with Cornell Companies after it purchased Allvest. The video of Prewitt making arrangements with Anderson was shown as evidence in the trial. Prewitt died on September 7, 2020, in Anchorage.

Prosecution The case against Anderson was prosecuted by Nicholas A. Marsh and Edward P. Sullivan of the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph W. Bottini and James A. Goeke of the District of Alaska.

A letter soliciting funds for the Tom Anderson Defense Fund was sent to about 100 individuals in February 2007 in order to help Anderson defray legal costs, which it was estimated would cost up to $250,000 due to extensive pretrial preparation and a trial which was expected to last about two weeks.

Bobrick charged, pled guilty On May 14, 2007, William "Bill" Bobrick, a prominent municipal lobbyist in Anchorage and former executive director of the Alaska Democratic Party, was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit extortion, bribery, and money laundering in the same scheme for which Anderson was indicted the previous December. Bobrick was the creator of the shell corporation, Pacific Publishing, through which money was allegedly funneled to Anderson. Bobrick also received money through the scheme. Bobrick appeared in U.S. District Court in Anchorage on May 16, where he entered a guilty plea. Bobrick will not be sentenced until after the trial of Tom Anderson, scheduled to begin June 25, where Bobrick will testify for the prosecution. Under sentencing guidelines Bobrick faced a possible 2 to years imprisonment, but his sentence was five months in prison and five months home confinement plus fines and community service.

Trial and sentencing Anderson's trial was originally scheduled to begin on February 12, 2007,

Jury selection for the trial began on June 25, 2007, drawing from a pool of 102 potential jurors from as far away as Dillingham and Bethel. Several potential jurors were challenged because they had already made judgments about Anderson's guilt or innocence or for other reasons. One potential juror was excluded because she had researched Anderson on Wikipedia.

On July 9, 2007, after a half-day of deliberations and another half of a day to come to their conclusions, a jury found Anderson guilty on all seven charges of extortion, bribery, conspiracy and money laundering. Anderson said he would appeal the verdict, claiming that, ""The prosecution has criminalized being a legislator over this past year. And I think I fell victim to that." His sentencing was scheduled for October 2, 2007, but was delayed until October 14, 2007.

Anderson died in Meadow Lakes, near Wasilla, Alaska, on February 10, 2024.