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.
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…
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.
The State Investment Council (SIC) says it can’t locate a subpoena and questionnaire that were missing from a group of public records released last month related to ongoing federal probes into the nationwide investment scandal.
Another money manager with ties to New York and New Mexico state investment scandals has pleaded guilty to bribing state officials in New York in exchange for a $250 million investment from that state’s pension fund, the Albuquerque Journal…
A legislative committee is scheduled to vote this afternoon on proposed legislation to strengthen oversight over New Mexico’s investment of taxpayer money.
One proposed bill before the Investments Oversight Committee would require all state funds that invest money to…
Hassan Nemazee, a longtime Democratic moneyman, was arrested last August and later accused of perpetrating a $292 million Ponzi scheme. Nemazee has pleaded not guilty to the bank fraud charges, but “it may be unsettling for New Mexico…
A local organization that works for more openness in government is claiming victory after a state agency decided Tuesday to publicly release documents that had been sought for months by the media.
Former State Investment Officer Gary Bland testified this fall before the federal Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as part of its own “non-public, fact-finding inquiry” into the investment scandal that is mushrooming, documents show.
Gov. Bill Richardson may be asked to share, under oath, whether he knows anything about the scandal in the state’s housing authority system that culminated in 2006 with the default of $5 million in bonds owed to the State Investment Council (SIC).
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has proposed changing the way the that state’s $120 billion pension fund is managed and regulated. That pension fund has emerged as an epicenter of corruption with a big New Mexico angle: Saul Meyer,…
Doug Brown, who stepped in as state treasurer after the resignation of Robert Vigil in 2005, has been tapped to head the search for a new State Investment Officer, Gov. Bill Richardson’s office announced today.
The search for a new…
Former State Investment Officer Gary Bland’s Wednesday resignation came after a private law firm hired by the State Investment Council (SIC) found that he had “pressured investment firms doing business with the state to hire certain third-party marketing or…
The state’s top investment officer has resigned amid a pay-to-play scandal that’s the subject of federal and state criminal investigations. Gary Bland resigned Wednesday in a letter to Gov. Bill Richardson.
Facing an enormous budget crisis, some legislators have aimed their sights at the governor, attempting to limit his political appointees, which range from cabinet secretaries to the governor’s mansion chef, who earns over $90,000, and First Lady Barbara Richardson’s assistant, who earns over $100,000.
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.
Did you catch that the Internal Revenue Service has filed a tax lien of more than $577,000 against State Investment Officer Gary Bland and his wife for not paying income taxes?
Bland disputes the IRS claim…
It’s unclear if all the third-party marketers involved in the New Mexico’s investment deals were properly registered with a federal government agency, state officials said earlier this week.
But at least one individual who shared in millions…
Angry legislators publicly thrashed the state’s investments officers Tuesday, in particular demanding to know why no one had noticed the millions of dollars in finders’ fees that were paid to a politically connected individual involved in certain state investments.
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
Gov. Bill Richardson took the extraordinary step Thursday of banning the use of third-party agents in some state investments, a controversial practice that has burst into the spotlight as names involved in a New York investment scandal have popped up here.
