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.
Bruce Malott, chairman of the Educational Retirement Board (ERB), abruptly resigned his post Wednesday after media inquiries from the Albuquerque Journal about a loan he received from the father of a man who received $22 million in so-called third-party…
A state judge has tossed one of two lawsuits filed by whistleblower Frank Foy, the Journal reports today, saying the suit targeted actions that occurred prior to the enactment of a 2007 state law that the suit relies on…
Whistleblower Frank Foy plans to go to court to try and stop the state from defending a former State Investment Officer and at least one public official, his attorney said Tuesday.
“We’re waiting to get hearings,” Victor Marshall said,…
“The Richardson administration pulled out all the stops to keep Gary Bland on the SIC,” Foy’s attorney, Victor Marshall, said at a small news conference Tuesday. But four SIC members said they never felt pressure from the Richardson in the days before the former state investment officer resigned.
Attorney General Gary King would get extra muscle to go after taxpayer money lost to fraud under a state budget the Legislature passed last week. The budget earmarks $150,000 for King to hire a full-time attorney to focus on court complaints filed by citizens who believe that the state has been defrauded, resulting in the loss of taxpayer money. A full-time attorney dedicated to so-called qui tam lawsuits could represent a financial boon to the state.
Two bills focused on government accountability passed the Senate in the early hours of Thursday morning as the clock wound down on the 2010 legislative session.
SB 44/211, Governmental Conduct for All State Entities, and HB 165, the…
A bill that would have prevented the state from defending an employee if the state is also the one bringing the charges (Senate Bill 220) died in the Senate Committee on Committees on Friday, but its sponsor, Sen. John Ryan, R-Albuquerque,…
Since June 2009, a San Francisco law firm has racked up $3.5 million in attorneys’ fees for advising and cataloging documents for a state agency at the center of two federal probes, state lawmakers learned Monday.
The cost outraged some…
New Mexico state lawmakers wanted to know Thursday why thousands of documents requested by whistleblower Frank Foy and his attorney haven’t been turned over by two agencies he says engaged in corrupt investment practices.
On Thursday, Gov. Bill Richardson gave the nod to a bill that sponsor Sen. Tim Keller said would be “the most sweeping investment fund reform in state history.” The bill incorporates more than 20 recommendations made by…
Thursday on the live blog, Governor Bill Richardson spoke to the press, Senator Stuart Ingle caused an unusual stir on the opening bill of the session and a man suing the state over corrupt state investment practices appeared…
The man who is suing New Mexico for allegedly defrauding New Mexico taxpayers out of $150 million and his lawyer are scheduled to appear in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday. According to a press release from the…
Law firms in Albuquerque, New York City and Washington, D.C. have joined to file a class-action lawsuit against former New Mexico Investment Officer Gary Bland and members of the Educational Retirement Board, according to the Santa Fe Reporter.
“How slow can you go?” asks the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government today in regard to the fulfillment of two information requests for public records. There’s a climate of obstruction and secrecy in state government, the group says, which…
An attorney for high-profile whistleblower Frank Foy charged Monday that the State Investment Council is resisting handing over e-mails and other documents that show the state’s former state investment officer, Gary Bland, pressured firms to hire a politically connected third-party marketer.
Both the Albuquerque Journal and the Associated Press are reporting that Marc Correra shared in $22 million in third-party marketer fees, a much larger total than the $16 million previously reported.
Two lawsuits -– one filed by whistleblower Frank Foy, the other by the National Education Association of New Mexico -– seek to recover damages from Texas-based Austin Capital Management, on allegations that they lost money due to fraud. Now the question is whose lawsuit should get first dibs on trying to recover that money.
Frank Foy on Tuesday added a Texas-based firm that caused New Mexico teachers’ pension funds to be indirectly invested in what some are calling one of the largest Ponzi schemes in history.
A former New Mexico Educational Retirement Board (ERB) member began testifying Monday in a lawsuit alleging that a pay-to-play culture existed at the state’s investment boards, the Albuquerque Journal reports today.
The New Mexico General Services Department’s risk management division has paid out $162,000 to defend indviduals named in a whistleblower lawsuit filed a former investment officer for the state Educational Retirement Board.
Frank Foy, the former investment officer, has
