The Department of Justice won't prosecute a prominent Alaska political and business figure on sex charges involving minors, including an Alaska Native girl, The Anchorage Daily News reports.

Paula Roberds, who is from a Yup'ik village, said Bill Allen, the former CEO of Veco, began paying her for sex when she was 15 years old. She said the arrangement continued even after she moved to Washington.

Roberds, who is now 26, reported the abuse in 2008 and began telling her story to authorities in Alaska, who were able to confirm many of the trips that Allen allegedly paid for. The evidence could have led to federal charges.

"We were ready to go the grand jury in March, April 2009," Anchorage Detective Michele Logan told the paper. "The evidence is there."

But by that time, Allen had already pleaded guilty as part of a wide-ranging federal corruption investigation. He then became the government's key witness against a number of other business and political figures in Alaska, including the late Sen. Ted Stevens (R).

The sex charge case was apparently put on hold in the summer of 2008, the Daily News reported. Other minors -- not just Roberds -- had accused Allen of sexual abuse.

Allen reported to federal prison this past January. In July, Roberds found out that the abuse case had been dropped.

"For them to allow a wealthy Alaska businessman to repeatedly sexually abuse an Alaska teenage girl and then get away with it, with the evidence and the documentary evidence as clear as it is in this case, is unfathomable," Kenneth Roosa, who is Roberds' attorney, told the paper.

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Feds won't prosecute Allen on sex charges (The Anchorage Daily News 8/23)