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.
Hassan Nemazee, a longtime Democratic moneyman, was arrested last August and later accused of perpetrating a $292 million Ponzi scheme. Nemazee has pleaded not guilty to the bank fraud charges, but “it may be unsettling for New Mexico citizens to now learn that a New York firm that Nemazee partly owns has a four-year contract to manage $200 million of New Mexico public money,” Forbes magazine reports in a piece posted today on its website.
Nemazee and others connected to Carret Asset Management gave campaign contributions to Gov. Bill Richardson before and after receiving the contract, according to the magazine. “The contract with the State Investment Council, which oversees $12 billion in trust funds from oil and gas leasing fees, has so far yielded $1.7 million in fees for Carret,” the author of the article, Nathan Vardi, reports.
Vardi goes on to get reaction from the governor’s office and the State Investment Council:
Richardson’s spokesman says the governor, who is chairman of the New Mexico State Investment Council, played no role whatsoever in the hiring of Carret. According to the New Mexico State Investment Council, the decision was made by Gary Bland, the state’s chief investment officer, who was appointed by Richardson and resigned in October amid pay-to-play scandals unrelated to Carret that have dogged Richardson’s administration.
It’s hard to discern what exactly the Forbes piece means, except that it’s just one more thing on top of everything else that has thrown a cloud of suspicion over how New Mexico has invested public money in recent years. Bland resigned last month amid a growing investment scandal here in New Mexico that has led both the Securities and Exchange Commission and U.S. Attorney’s office to subpoena records from the State Investment Council in recent months for separate inquiries.
Forbes reports that in July 2006, about the time Carret started trying to secure the New Mexico business, Nemazee contributed $5,000 to Richardson’s gubernatorial campaign.
“A month later, a company run by Alan Quasha, who has been the co-chair of Carret and longtime business partner of Nemazee’s, gave $20,000. Two years later, in late 2008, Nemazee, Nemazee’s wife, Quasha and two other top Carret employees, contributed a total of $11,500 to Richardson’s presidential campaign,” according to the magazine.
Nemazee’s lawyer declined to comment. But Quasha was blunt, Forbes reports.
“‘We did not pay to play,’ he said, meaning the contributions had nothing to do with Carret’s New Mexico contract. He also insisted Nemazee, until recently co-chair of the firm, was a “minority shareholder and had no executive responsibilities” at Carret.
