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.
New Mexico has lost another $27 million in an investment involving the son of a friend and fundraiser for Gov. Bill Richardson.
Marc Correra acted as a third-party marketer in a 2006 investment deal with a Chicago-based firm that cost the state $90 million after it went sour. Now the State Investment Council (SIC) is writing off $27 million of another $55 million investment made in 2006 with a different firm, SIC spokesman Charles Wollman said Friday. Correra shared in $576,000 in fees paid out in the latest deal, with Northstar SIC Holding LLC, according to state documents.
“This is a $27 million write down,” Wollman told the Independent.
Correra has come under scrutiny for the $22 million in fees that he shared in over six years as he helped arrange dozens of investment deals with both the SIC and the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board.
Marc Correra is the son of Anthony Correra, who is a friend of the governor. The elder Correra was involved in the hiring of State Investment Officer Gary Bland, who is the top staff member at the State Investment Council, according to published reports.
The state lost big-time in the 2006 deal that saw the SIC and the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board write off $90 million they had invested with Chicago-based Vanderbilt Financial Trust. Correra shared in $2 million in fees for helping to arrange that deal, which is the subject of a lawsuit.
Third-party marketers such as Correra, until recently, were obscure figures in the investment world who acted as matchmakers between private investment funds and states looking for a good return on their money.
But their activities are now under scrutiny. Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed the SIC and ERB in an ongoing investigation into investment practices in New Mexico. Of interest, according to a federal subpoena to the ERB released in June, is Texas-based Aldus, New Mexico’s former investment adviser. Saul Meyer, its founder, has been indicted in an ongoing New York investigation into pay-to-play allegations there.
Among the allegations in the New York inquiry is that Meyer 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 the criminal complaint. At the time, the comptroller’s son, Dan Hevesi, was acting as a third-party marketer.
In addition to Aldus-related documents, federal prosecutors wanted documents showing “any firms, individuals, or entities investing funds or providing investment advice to or on behalf of the ERB” and those listing brokers, placement agents or third-party marketers associated with those investment firms.
No one has accused Correra of wrongdoing, and his attorneys in the past have said he worked hard to earn the fees. But the $22 million in fees Correra has shared in has provoked outrage from state lawmakers and others in recent months at the same time that some investments have failed, costing the state money.
This latest deal involving Correra saw the SIC invest $55 million of a $90 million commitment in 2006 to Northstar SIC Holdings LLC. Northstar then invested that money in two separate ventures. One was a “high-risk, high-return” real estate development in Connecticut named Antares Investment Partners that later soured, Wollman explained.
According to a recent SIC report, the market value of the agency’s SIC original $55 million investment is $12 million. Wollman said that the SIC recovered $16 million of the original investment.
The SIC invests money from the state’s four permanent funds to get a greater return on the dollars. Money comes into the permanent funds from leasing fees, taxes collected on the extraction of minerals in New Mexico and money from the national tobacco settlement. The permanent funds contribute about 15 percent to the state’s annual budget; without them, each household in the state would pay an average of $800 more in taxes every year, according to the SIC’s Web site.
