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.
Guy Riordan, a former New Mexico State Game Commission Chairman and friend of Gov. Bill Richardson, has been banned from the securities industry for life and fined $1.5 million by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, reports the Albuquerque Journal.
Riordan, as you may recall, factored in the state Treasurer scandal and was alleged to have “made cash payments to former state Treasurer Michael Montoya in exchange for state business.”
As Albuquerque Journal investigative reporter Mike Gallagher writes:
“Riordan’s conduct was serious and recurrent,” the commission found. “Riordan engaged in fraudulent conduct spanning a seven-year period and involving a total of 80 transactions.”
The SEC ruling supports the findings of an administrative-law judge in the case, Gallagher writes. That judge found that evidence established “over a seven-year period, Riordan made secret cash payments to Montoya in exchange for Montoya selecting Riordan’s bids” for the purchase and sale of securities.
The commission found that Montoya “rigged” bids to favor Riordan and that as a result, Riordan won 18 of 29 bids on securities deals in 20001 and 2002, the Journal’s story goes on to report.
Riordan had appealed the administrative-law judge’s decision to the full commission. He argued that Montoya fabricated the story about the cash payments after Montoya was arrested in 2005 for his involvement in a different kickback scheme, according to the Journal.
But the commission found the FBI already was aware of the Riordan kickbacks from two informers before Montoya’s arrest and that Montoya’s story was consistent with the versions given by the informers, the Journal reports.
