I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
The chart released Tuesday by the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board shows in some detail how Marc Correra, the son of a friend of Gov. Bill Richardson, made millions in finders’ fees from investment deals involving the state agency.
One of the largest paydays for Correra and his firm came in the form of $1.2 million, paid to Ajax Investments following the Education Retirement Board’s investment of $40 million in a fund by the name of Clayont, Dublier & Rice VIII in 2008, the chart shows.
Another ERB deal — $20 million invested into a fund called Newstone Capital Partners — netted Correra $400,000 in finders’ fees. Still another deal saw Correra and his firm take away $375,000 after he split a $750,000 fee with a Lehman Brothers broker after the state agency invested $25 million in a fund called Com Best Partners III.
Third-party agents like Correra who earn the finders’ fees are paid not by the state but by managers who are trying to interest the state, or any one of its agencies that invests in their funds.
Correra has been in the news a lot lately, especially for the finders’ fees controversy. But his name has surfaced elsewhere as well.
Correra is part of an investment team that recently beat out three other groups to win a license to open a racino — a horse track plus a casino — in Raton, the state’s sixth and, for the foreseeable future, final racino.
But in a specially called meeting last week, the New Mexico Gaming Control Board tabled the investment team’s request, the Albuquerque Journal reported Friday. The board wanted the investors to provide more information about their finances and their ability to pay for the $50 million racino, the paper said.
The state board’s decision came well after Correra’s name already had surfaced in the scandal involving finders’ fees.
In addition to earning his company millions from deals with the Education Retirement Board, Marc Correra and his company also made $11.5 million from deals involving the State Investment Council, state documents show.
