Report: Nevada governor facing FBI probe of classified federal

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Feb 15, 2007 | by Associated Press

NEW YORK -- The FBI is investigating whether Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons failed to properly report gifts or payments from a software company that was awarded secret military contracts when he was in Congress, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Investigators are looking at whether federal contracting rules were violated or whether gifts or payments were offered in exchange for official acts by Gibbons, the newspaper said.

Agent David Staretz, spokesman for the FBI office in Las Vegas, told The Associated Press on Thursday he could neither confirm nor deny an investigation was under way.

Gibbons, a Republican, was sworn in last month as governor after five terms in Congress, where he served on the House Intelligence and Armed Services committees.

He asked the House ethics committee in November for an opinion about whether he improperly reported private jet flights and a Caribbean cruise paid for by businessman Warren Trepp, owner of eTreppid Technologies LLC.

The Reno-based company has millions of dollars worth of classified federal software contracts from the Air Force, U.S. Special Operations Command and the CIA.

The Journal reported new evidence had emerged in a lawsuit in Reno, including e-mails to Trepp discussing a payment or gifts to then-Rep. Gibbons. The e-mails also show Gibbons using his congressional office to help the company seek classified military and civilian contracts, the newspaper said.

"Please don't forget to bring the money you promised Jim and Dawn," Trepp's wife, Jale Trepp, said in a March 22, 2005, e-mail days before Trepp and his wife embarked on the Caribbean cruise with Jim Gibbons and his wife, Dawn, a former Nevada state assemblywoman.

According to the Journal, Trepp responded minutes later saying: "Don't you ever send this kind of message to me! Erase this message from your computer right now!"

Gibbons did not disclose the cruise and travel on Trepp's leased private jet, as required by House ethics rules. He later asked the House Ethics Committee for an exemption, but left office before any action was taken.

Trepp and Gibbons have denied wrongdoing, and no charges have been filed.

In a statement to the Journal on Wednesday, a spokesman for the governor said Gibbons has "consistently stated that he and Warren Trepp have a long-standing friendship."

Gibbons, the statement said, was proud of his efforts "to highlight the good work of Nevada companies as part of his duties to represent his constituents. However, he held no special power in awarding defense contracts, which go through a multilevel approval process."

The governor's office did not immediately return a call Thursday from the AP.

Trepp, a former chief trader for convicted junk-bond dealer Michael Milken, could not be reached by the AP because his phone number was not listed.

His attorney, Steven Peek, told the Journal that Trepp "has had no inquires or questions from any federal officials about his relationship with Jim Gibbons."