Guy Riordan

Guy Riordan, a former New Mexico State Game Commission Chairman and friend of Gov. Bill Richardson, has been banned from the securities industry for life and fined $1.5 million by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, reports the Albuquerque Journal.

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.

Two of Gov. Bill Richardson’s longtime friends and advisers made headlines last week amid revelations that a federal probe into allegations of pay-to-play politics may reach all the way to the governor’s office. But the bigger story is New Mexico’s chummy political culture in which friendship with the governor and state business can become intertwined.