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.
A prominent fundraiser for high-profile Democrats played a bigger role than previously thought in helping his company land a 2007 deal to manage New Mexico investments, the Albuquerque Journal reported today.
The revelation comes thanks to a court memo produced earlier this year prior to Hassan Nemazee’s 12-year prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to fraud, the Journal says.
Before his fall from grace, Nemazee was a high-flying fundraiser for high-profile Democrats, including Hillary Clinton. He also contributed to Richardson’s re-election in 2006, the Journal reports.
The unstated question, in today’s Journal story is whether Nemazee might have used his political connections to get a big, lucrative contract for his firm, Carret Asset Management.
The Journal story offers no definitive answers about what ultimately happened with Nemazee and Carret, and raises as many questions as it answers. That’s not a knock, just an observation. These stories are hard to report, and even harder to write.
The implication of influence-peddling hangs in the air because news of Nemazee’s sentencing memo comes as federal authorities are continuing to investigate how certain New Mexico investment deals were inked, and whether politically connected individuals played an out-sized role in those agreements.
Gary Bland, who was the State Investment Officer for most of Gov. Bill Richardson‘s tenure, resigned in October of last year, only days after New Mexico’s former investment adviser, Saul Meyer of Aldus Equity, pleaded guilty to securities fraud in New York.
In a statement released at the time by the New York Office of the Attorney General, which prosecuted Meyer, 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 in that statement.
The sentencing memo the Journal quotes from in today’s story hints that Nemazee might have played a bigger role than previously understood in Carret’s landing the 2007 contract to manage state investments.
Until now Hassan Nemazee was viewed publicly as a silent partner with no say in day-to-day operations for Carret because that’s what Carret told State Investment Council staff last year, the Journal story reports. But the the sentencing memo the Journal quotes from says Nemazee “had the most contact at the initiation of the relationship between the asset manager (Carret) and the New Mexico entities and could provide insight into how the business relationship was formed and furthered.”
Carret apparently told state officials that Nemazee was a silent partner with little say in day-to-day operations.
Carret, which managed a stock portfolio for the SIC, was fired earlier this year by that agency.
Today’s Journal story is another reminder that federal investigations are still looking into New Mexico investments. Both the State Investment Council and Educational Retirement Board have received federal subpoenas. And the SIC has talked openly in recent months of cooperating with federal authorities investigating the agency and its dealings.
Meanwhile, both the SIC and ERB have said they are looking into trying to recover taxpayer money lost to fraud.
