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.
It’s unclear if all the third-party marketers involved in the New Mexico’s investment deals were properly registered with a federal government agency, state officials said earlier this week.
But at least one individual who shared in millions of finders’ fees, Marc Correra, is registered with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), a self-regulating organization, an Internet search shows.
Correra, currently employed by Highland Park, Ill-based Ajax Investments, is registered in seven U.S. states and territories, although it was not made clear what states.
The records show no reported formal investigations and disciplinary actions initiated by regulators, customer disputes, certain criminal charges and/or convictions, as well as financial disclosures, such as bankruptcies and unpaid judgments or liens, against Correra.
The more than $15 million that Correra has shared in as a third-party marketer, or placement agent, in dozens of state investment deals in recent years has grabbed the spotlight in the scandal over state investments along with a generous heaping of public scrutiny.
Recent lists made public by the State Investment Council and Educational Retirement Board shows that Correra earned fees for both Ajax and Santa Fe-based Cabrera Capital Markets.
Ajax appears to be Correra’s latest employer. He registered with Ajax on Jan. 4, 2007, records show. Prior to that, Correra was registered with Santa Fe-based Cabrera Capital Markets Inc. from February of 2005 through December of 2006, the records show.
Correra was not registered with any firm from 1997 through 2006, although he was registered with two firms prior to 1997, FINRA records show.
A criminal probe in New York has heightened scrutiny here in New Mexico around third-party marketers, in part because that investigation has uncovered questionable practices in New Mexico that appeared to expose the sometimes-blurry line between influence peddling and the legitimate service third-party marketers perform for money managers.
Among the allegations: the founder of New Mexico’s former financial adviser, Aldus Equity, helped the son of the New York state comptroller, Alan Hevesi, win a lucrative contract in New Mexico for a firm he was representing in return for Aldus’ increased business in New York, according to a criminal complaint. At the time, the comptroller’s son, Dan Hevesi, was acting as a third-party marketer in New Mexico. Aldus’ founder, Saul Meyer, was charged in the New York criminal probe.
State lawmakers this week tried to discern Tuesday how many of the third-party marketers such as Correra were registered.
State Investment Officer Gary Bland told state lawmakers Tuesday that the “ones that we have any interaction with I believe they are all registered” with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
That less than definitive statement wasn’t good enough for state Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming.
“How can we get empirical data on that?” Smith shot back.
“We are asking for that data,” Bland responded. “But because of the litigation in New York everyone is pretty much shut down.”
Christopher Schatzman, counsel for the state Educational Retirement Board, echoed Bland’s remarks, saying “we will be going back. Many of these people are becoming reluctant to talk.”
Discerning who is and who is not registered is not always easy. FINRA requires brokers to be registered, but not necessarily placement agents, said Charles Wollman of the State Investment Council.
Brokers are those companies, or individuals, for whom the third-party placement agent usually works.
Adding to that complication is the litigation that has come amid the New York criminal investigation.
A five-page document released last week by the Educational Retirement Board suggests that Correra earned $2 million on a controversial deal involving Vanderbilt Financial Trust that cost the state $90 million in losses.
