[citation needed] On December 6, 2006, Anderson was indicted by a federal grand jury on seven felony counts of extortion, bribery, conspiracy, and money laundering involving allegations that he took bribes of nearly $13,000 in return for using his official position as a legislator to advocate for the certificate of need (CON) issuance for a residential psychiatric treatment center (RPTC) associated with the Gov.
Frank Murkowski "Bring the Kids Home" initiative, and for contract changes relating to a community confinement center (halfway house) in Anchorage.
In July 2007 he was found guilty on all seven felony counts[6] and was sentenced in October 2007 to 60 months imprisonment to commence at the Federal Prison Camp in Sheridan, Oregon, on December 3, 2007.
[2] Beginning in 1991, while still a student at UAA, he served as chief of staff for Representative Terry Martin, an East Anchorage Republican who was first elected to the House in 1978.
[19] 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.
[20] 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.
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.
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.
Anderson told the Anchorage Daily News the contract was to advise the association on member relations and to research telecommunications policies in other states.
[23] Anderson also reported to the Alaska Public Offices Commission outside income from Pacific Publishing for $10,000 in 2004 and $5,000 from Anchorage developer Marc Marlow in 2005.
[11] On August 31 and September 1, 2006, the FBI served some 20 search warrants in Anchorage, Juneau, Wasilla, Eagle River, Girdwood and Willow, primarily on the offices of several legislators.
[22][23] Disclosure of the search warrant served on Rep. Vic Kohring, another of the six legislators searched, revealed that federal investigators were also interested in information related to Anchorage developer Marc Marlow and about Cornell Companies' effort in cooperation with VECO Corporation to build a private prison in Whittier, an effort which failed due to lack of local support.
The Daily News observed, "Those documents, though lacking detail or context, suggest that the probe is wide-ranging and not focused on any one company, issue or individual.
Unbeknownst to Anderson or Bobrick, their contact with the private corporation's company was a confidential source of the FBI working undercover.
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.
[37] Two of the early private prisons venture partners were caught up in the ongoing Alaska political corruption probe leading to blogger and press speculation that Prewitt's service to the federal government may have been the result of a secret plea agreement although no formal charges were placed.
[40] 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,[35] as part of a larger probe of political corruption in Alaska,[41] and Assistant U.S.
[35] Nicholas A. Marsh, 37, committed suicide two years after being part of the Justice Department team that convicted Stevens on corruption charges that were eventually thrown out.
A ruling against federal prosecutors by U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan in February 2012 included a report detailing "the systematic concealment of significant exculpatory evidence" and "widespread and at times intentional misconduct" by Justice Department lawyers during the prosecution of the late Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, be made public by March 15, 2012.
[44] 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.
[48] 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.
He was designated to a Federal Community Corrections Center (halfway house) in Seattle, Washington until May 2011 and then returned home to Anchorage.
In 2010, while Anderson was serving time in federal prison in Oregon, his third wife, State Senator Lesil McGuire, divorced him.