Who Wrote Letters Supporting Bill Allen?

Fairbanks--

From Mark Regan:

(Exhibit 3 to Bill Allen’s sentencing memo)

Family (a granddaughter: “He is the personification of ‘The American Dream’”; another granddaughter, a first-grader with suspiciously practiced handwriting: “Dear Your Honor: I love my Grandpa and if you took him away, I would cry”): at least 12 letters.

Mark Allen, Bill Allen’s son, co-owner of this year’s Kentucky Derby winner apparently purchased post-indictment with Allen family money, had the chutzpah to say that “My father has always believed in my dreams of racing, breeding, and training horses. … Dad made it possible for my dreams to come true this past May when my horse won the Kentucky Derby.”

Current and former VECO employees helped by Allen: at least 8 letters.

Other family friends helped by Allen: at least 5 letters.

A Pop Warner coach: 1 letter.

John Shively: 1 letter, much more nuanced than any of the others. Shively thinks Allen changed after his 2001 motorcycle accident and that Rick Smith “was not the right person for the job” of being Allen’s primary advisor. Smith “is not a strategic or political thinker, nor is he someone who would stand up to Bill or help him stay out of trouble.”

--Mark Regan