A California man who shared in $1.5 million in placement fees in New Mexico investment deals pleaded guilty Wednesday to securities fraud in an ever-expanding New York criminal probe, according to news reports.

Julio Ramirez is cooperating with the criminal investment of what New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has called a “matrix of corruption.”

State records show that Ramirez on two occasions over the years shared $700,000 in placement fees with Marc Correra, the son of a friend of Gov. Bill Richardson’s, and one other gentleman.

Correra has grabbed the spotlight here in New Mexico along with a generous heaping of public scrutiny for sharing in more than $15 million in placement fees as a third-party marketer in dozens of state investment deals here in New Mexico, as well as for his father’s friendship with the governor. Correra has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

State records show that Ramirez shared $500,000 in placement fees with Correra on a $25 million investment in 2007 that the State Investment Council made with KH Growth (Vicente Capital). Ramirez shared another $200,000 with Correra and Robert Aguilar on a $10 million investment the Educational Retirement Board made with KH Growth (Vicente Capital).

The scrutiny over Correra and the fees that are paid to third-party marketers has come because of the New York criminal probe that netted Ramirez on Wednesday. That probe 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.

According to Talking Points Memo, Ramirez is a former Los Angeles politico who until March worked for the tony boutique investment bank Blackstone. In the nineties, Ramirez managed one of former LA mayor Richard Riordan’s campaigns and worked on various others.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that Ramirez also was a former employee of California-based Wetherly Capital Group, a firm that figures in the New York criminal probe but whose founder, Dan Weinstein, has been accused of no wrongdoing.

As the New York Times reported:

Wetherly, run by Dan Weinstein, a prominent Democratic fund-raiser, has become enmeshed in parallel inquiries by Mr. Cuomo’s office and the Securities and Exchange Commission, but so far has not been charged.

Weinstein shared in about $2 million in placement fees related to several investment deals involving the New Mexico State Investment Council, state records show.

The Times reported that Weinstein said  his firm “has been fully cooperating with regulators for many months,” but expressed concern about how the highly public case “has unfairly done grave damage to the reputation and integrity that Wetherly has legitimately earned over the course of many years.”