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.
A grand jury on Wednesday handed up a 50-count indictment against former New Mexico Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron and three others for allegedly mismanaging millions of dollars in public funds.
Lobbyists Joseph Kupfer and Elizabeth Kupfer, along with Armando Gutierrez, the president of the company the state hired to implement the federal Help America Vote Act, all face the same 50 counts as Vigil-Giron, Attorney General Gary King confirmed during an interview with the Independent on Wednesday afternoon.
Elizabeth Kupfer worked for Attorney General Patricia Madrid at the time of the scheme that is at the heart of the attorney general’s prosecution as that agency’s administrative services director.
Her husband, Joseph, worked as the lobbyist for the Secretary of State’s Office.
“My government accountability team has been working on this for about two years,” King said. “We have been trying to point out that there was a lot of evidence. We feel that it has been well researched. We feel like we can support the evidence in court.”
There are 50 counts against each individual. Charges include fraud, embezzlement, money laundering and soliciting or receiving public kickbacks.
The money was supposed to go towards voter education, but a federal audit found several problems with how $6.2 million was spent.
There are 50 counts against each individual. They include:
The prosecution basically dealt with the same missing money that was found in a 2008 audit by the inspector general of the Federal Election Assistance Commission. That audit found that an Albuquerque firm, A. Gutierrez & Associates, Inc., that produced 44,500 TV and radio ads in 2004 and 2006 for Vigil-Giron, could account for only $2.6 million of the roughly $4.8 million budgeted for production and voter education. The audit also found that Gutierrez was paid a $1 million administrative fee in addition to the $4.8 million for producing the voter education ads.
According to the 2008 federal audit, the voter education ads starred Vigil-Giron and ran in English, Spanish and Navajo leading up to the 2004 general and 2006 primary and general elections.
How much of that money was correctly spent and therefore eligible for payment is the apparent subject of the investigation by the state Attorney General’s Office.
Another finding from last year’s federal audit was that the Attorney General’s Office did not review an Aug. 26, 2004 letter in which Vigil-Giron agreed to pay Gutierrez a 17 percent administrative fee, which eventually amounted to $1 million. That letter changed how Gutierrez was paid from three hourly rates to a 17 percent administrative fee.
“The former Secretary of State told us that she relied on the statements made by the Contractor that it would be better to agree to the 17 percent fee arrangement because it would result in a lower overall cost to the state,” the report says.
The Attorney General’s Office, which is legally bound to review state agency contracts, told auditors that the office “had not reviewed the August 26 letter as a part of their review of the contract or the amendments.”
All in all, the work done by A. Gutierrez & Associates netted the firm more than $6 million in payments, or roughly a third of all federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) money sent to New Mexico to assist in planning and running the 2004 and 2006 federal elections.
An examination by the State Auditor found that the state program went over budget by $3 million and didn’t keep proper accounting.
