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.
An outside review of the State Investment Council recommends significantly reducing the governor’s power over the agency, the Albuquerque Journal reports today.
Gov. Bill Richardson’s influence over the State Investment Council “is more far-reaching than it is for governors in most of the 14 other states with similar funds,” the Journal reported, explaining one of the dozens of findings submitted by the consultants conducting the review.
In addition, decisions on how to invest New Mexico’s $13 billion worth of endowment funds were made internally and largely without scrutiny from the board appointed to oversee the state’s portfolio, according to Chicago-based consulting firm EnnisKnupp, which was hired to study the SIC late last year, the Journal explains.
The news of too little oversight isn’t a total surprise. The SIC has been at the center of a growing scandal over how the state invested public money during Richardson’s tenure. The SIC is currently being investigated by federal prosecutors as well as the federal Securities and Exchange Commission. Meanwhile, the agency’s former head, Gary Bland, resigned in October before a no-confidence vote by the SIC board.
It is unclear exactly how Richardson’s influence shaped the agency’s investments, if any, according to the Journal story. But questions have lingered for months over how much political pressure was exerted as SIC made decisions about where and how to invest public money.
In October, New Mexico’s former investment adviser, Saul Meyer of Aldus Equity, pleaded guilty to securities violations brought by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
In a news release put out by Cuomo’s office at the time, Meyer admitted to pushing certain deals to New Mexico’s two investment agencies — the SIC and Educational Retirement Board (ERB) — as the state’s investment adviser because politically connected individuals here recommended them. Meyer didn’t name names.
Bland, meanwhile, was close to two people well known by now to those following New Mexico’s investment scandal: Marc Correra and Anthony Correra.
Marc Correra shared $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 Marc Correra helped arrange have cost New Mexico more than $115 million.
Marc Correra is the son of Anthony Correra, a friend of Richardson who was involved in the hiring of Bland, the former top staff member at the State Investment Council.
No one in law enforcement has accused either Correra of wrongdoing, and Marc Correra’s attorneys in the past have said he worked hard to earn the fees he was paid.
But the consultants’ report appears to be a strong sign that the state lacked the kind of oversight required when a state agency makes important decisions about how to invest.
