Editor's note: This story was first published Nov. 17, 2011.

Anti-Pebble mine billionaire Bob Gillam's aviation firm violated state law by flying at sharply reduced rates two campaigning Lake and Peninsula Borough candidates, alleges a complaint filed by Alaska Public Offices Commission staff.

The complaint, filed in July, has touched off a firestorm of accusations involving some of the key figures in the multi-million-dollar battle over proposed development of the region's massive Pebble copper, gold and molybdenum prospect.

The staff complaint argues that RBG Bush Planes -- owned by Robert B. Gillam Revocable Trust and bearing the man's initials -- should have charged Nana Kalmakoff and Michelle Pope Ravenmoon commercial charter rates for a pair of multi-day trips. The trips allowed them to barnstorm villages during their successful campaigns to serve on the Lake and Pen Borough Assembly in September 2010.

The original complaint zeroes in on the first of the excursions, this one for two days to the villages of Chignik, Levelock, Nondalton and Kokhanok. That trip alone was enough for the aviation company, as well as Kalmakoff and Pope, to violate the law, APOC staff argue.

Had they paid for a chartered flight in Southwest Alaska, as they legally should have, they each would have coughed up several thousands dollars, APOC staff contend. Instead, they paid RBG Bush Planes just $306 to pay for their share of the fuel.

Companies can endorse candidates through advertising, but they can't legally contribute directly to candidates or their campaigns, including with in-kind contributions, said Paul Dauphinais, APOC's executive director. APOC staff allege the reduced fare was an in-kind contribution.

Defense: Gillam family plane can't charge for charters

In arguments filed before the commission, RBG lawyers with Holmes Weddle and Barcott don't dispute the flights occurred. But they say RBG is not a commercial airline, and the trips did not resemble chartered flights -- in part because the candidates had no control over the airplanes' schedules. Also, the company is not allowed to charge for chartered flights because it's not permitted to do so by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Generally, the airline is generally used by Gillam’s family and on business related to his investment firm, McKinley Capital Management, said Art Hackney, a political consultant and spokesman for Gillam. McKinley Capital Management earned about $5 million to manage more than $1 billion of Alaska's investments, including a portion of the Permanent Fund.

The airplane rides -- in a Piper Navajo and a DeHavilland Beaver -- began at the invitation of George Jacko, a former state legislator paid by Gillam at the time to "educate villagers" about the dangers a mine poses to the world’s most valuable wild salmon fishery.

Jacko was already planning to fly to the villages. He regularly flew around the Bristol Bay region in RBG planes doing "community outreach" not intended to influence any election, he says in an affidavit filed before the commission.

Jacko let the two candidates know about the trip and said they could fly with him, he testified in the affidavit. The candidates had no control over the trip, and he was not involved in their campaign activities.

"They went their way, and I went mine," Jacko said, noting that he understands the candidates campaigned door to door in the villages.

Lawyers representing RBG Bush Plane argue that the candidates were charged what they should have been -- the cost of their share of the fuel. That's based on a past APOC decision, they say. They liken the situation to a hitchhiker on the Alaska road system.

"Therefore, 'hitching a ride' on someone's plane that is already flying for other purposes is akin to getting a lift from Anchorage to Fairbanks from someone who is already going that way. Under such circumstances, the hitch-hiker would only be expected to pay the cost of gas," they argued in a response.

APOC statutes and regulations provide little guidance on how flight costs should be allocated in these circumstances, said attorney Timothy McKeever with Holmes Weddle and Barcott.