Judge boosts sentence on ex-Alaska speaker

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Former Alaska House Speaker Pete Kott was sentenced to six years in a federal prison Friday for accepting $9,000 in bribes from the founder of an oil field services company.

U.S. District Court Judge John Sedwick bumped up the prison term beyond sentencing guidelines after concluding that Kott had committed perjury during his trial. He also said the legislation Kott took bribes to influence — a revised tax law on Alaska's principal industry, crude oil extraction — affected every Alaskan.

Kott was convicted in September of bribery, extortion and conspiracy for his dealings with executives of VECO Corp., a major Alaska firm that performed maintenance, design and construction contracts for petroleum producers.