Gary Bland

Gov. Bill Richardson on Wednesday reappointed David Harris and named Catherine A. Allen (of the Santa Fe Group) and Doug Brown (of UNM’s Anderson School of Management) to the State Investment Council (SIC), complying with a new law that re-organizes the besieged state agency.

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, referring to a legal complaint his client has filed in the 1st Judicial District Court in Santa [...]

“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.

The state Legislature on Thursday morning passed a bill that would reform the State Investment Council. The Governor has said he will sign the bill.

A special prosecutor hired by the New Mexico Attorney General would investigate and recover any money lost from state investment funds due to fraud under legislation that unanimously passed the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon. “I believe personally that we have $270 million to $290 million that are lost,” Sen. President Pro Tem Tim Jennings, D-Roswell, said. [...]

The House passed its own stab at reforming the State Investment Council (SIC) Sunday. The 68 to 0 vote occurred quickly and without much fanfare on the House floor, and follows by two days the Senate’s passage of its own more aggressive reform bill.
The House’s action now sets up a scenario where the Legislature has dueling SIC reform bills and increases the potential for back-room maneuvering and haggling to see who gets credit for reforming an agency at the center of an ongoing scandal.

Gov. Bill Richardson will lose control of the State Investment Council while the State Investment Officer no longer could hire and fire fund managers under legislation that cleared the Senate on Friday evening. Senators voted unanimously after a short debate to dramatically re-structure how the Council (SIC) is governed.

State senators weren’t agreed Friday about how to reform a state agency at the center of an investment scandal. But one thing’s for sure: they’re spoiling for a fight with Gov. Bill Richardson over who should control the State Investment Council. Three reform bills are being combined into one that could be heard on Monday in the Senate Rules Committee.

A bill that would transfer oversight of the State Investment Council from the executive branch to the state Attorney General’s office cleared a powerful Senate Committee on Thursday morning. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Tim Keller, D-Albuquerque, would take oversight and enforcement of the State Investment Council from the securities division of [...]

The governor would no longer sit on the state Investment Council if a bill sponsored by Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque, succeeds.
The bill is one of three in the Senate aimed at reforming at a state agency at the center of an ever-widening investment scandal with ties to New York state and California. All three bills are scheduled [...]

A bill before the Legislature would focus more eyes on State Investment Council’s (SIC) cash register at a time the state agency already has attracted plenty of federal eyeballs.

Changes envisioned in the legislation include a lessening of the governor’s authority over the State Investment Council and a reduction in the portfolio of the agency’s top staff member — the State Investment Officer.

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.

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 [...]

Political scandals, former elected officials getting indicted, electoral surprises and an occasional David toppling a Goliath–2009 had it all.

Gov. Bill Richardson’s office is being secretive … again.
According to a story in the Albuquerque Journal today by Mike Gallagher, the governor’s office won’t even say whether it has received subpoenas from a federal grand jury or the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding state investment business.
A bit of inconsistency is at play here, as Gallagher [...]