The state’s former investment advisor may have admitted to pushing certain deals to New Mexico’s two investment agencies because politically connected individuals here recommended them.

But who are those individuals? If Saul Meyer, the founder of Aldus Equity, is cooperating with the New York Attorney General’s office, then he may have named names behind closed doors, but so far nothing has been made public. A press release, sent out by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announcing Meyer’s guilty plea to security fraud violations in relation to a kickback scheme in that state, doesn’t give any insight into who’s involved.

According to a press release from Cuomo’s office, Meyer, who was the state’s investment adviser from 2004 to 2009, “admitted that on numerous occasions, contrary to his fiduciary duty to SIC and ERB, he ensured that Aldus recommended proposed investments that were pushed on him by politically-connected individuals in New Mexico, knowing that these politically-connected individuals or their associates stood to benefit financially or politically from the investments and that the investments were not necessarily in the best economic interest of New Mexico.”

The news of Meyer’s guilty plea Tuesday thrust another scandal onto the front burner in New Mexico, where Gov. Bill Richardson and former staff members recently escaped criminal charges but not a cloud of suspicion.

The process by which two New Mexico agencies invested public money has been under scrutiny since Meyer was charged by Cuomo’s office earlier this year and ties to the New York investment scandal were discovered here. Federal prosecutors, meanwhile, have subpoenaed records from the state’s two investment agencies, the State Investment Council (SIC) and Educational Retirement Board (ERB).

Representatives of SIC and ERB declined to comment Tuesday on Meyer’s statement.

Here in New Mexico, one person in particular has come under sustained scrutiny for both his political connections and for the amount of money he has shared in as a result of investment deals he helped arrange: Marc Correra.

No one in law enforcement has accused Correra of wrongdoing, and his attorneys in the past have said he worked hard to earn the fees.

Marc Correra is the son of Anthony Correra, a friend of Richardson who was involved in the hiring of State Investment Officer Gary Bland, the top staff member at the State Investment Council.

Marc Correra has shared in $22 million in fees over half a dozen years, according to spreadsheets provided by both the SIC and ERB. The huge amount of fees has provoked outrage from state lawmakers and others in recent months, fueled in part by some investments that have failed, costing the state money. Two of the deals he helped arrange have cost New Mexico more than $115 million.

One deal for $90 million involved a Chicago-based firm and is the subject of a civil complaint filed by a former investment officer at the ERB. The other investment that went sour involved a real estate deal in Connecticut. The State Investment Council has written off $27 million of another $55 million investment made in 2006.

A call to Marc Correra’s attorney, Sam Bregman, was not immediately returned Tuesday.

While Marc Correra has not been accused of wrongdoing by authorities, a former investment officer with the Educational Retirement Board, Frank Foy, has named him in a lawsuit. Foy has alleged that he had been pressured at the agency to award contracts and make investments that would reward political campaign contributors of Governor Bill Richardson.

Spokesmen for Richardson and others named in the complaint have vigorously denied the charges.

In addition to Correra, Guy Riordan, once a confidant of Richardson before he was tangled up in the recent state treasurer scandal, also made money marketing investment deals approved by the State Investment Council. According to the agency, Riordan split a $1.235 million fee in one deal and then made more than $300,000 on another, documents show.

Until recently, third-party marketers such as Correra 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 the loss of public money and the hefty fees paid out to such marketers have attracted more scrutiny.

Earlier this year New Mexico banned the practice of paying third-party marketers. Representatives of the governor’s office at the time said the state wasn’t aware of the amount of money paid to marketers.

Third-party agents are paid not by the state but by managers who are trying to interest the state — or any one of several agencies that make certain investments — to put money into their funds. In theory, those funds would manage the state’s investment and earn it a return.

Meyer is at the center of the New York connection to the New Mexico investment scandal. Among the allegations in the New York inquiry earlier this year 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 a criminal complaint filed by Cuomo’s office. At the time, the comptroller’s son, Dan Hevesi, was acting as a third-party marketer.