New Mexico Finance Authority

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 [...]

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.

If you think Twitter is just a way for American techno geeks to navel gaze, how mistaken you are.
Watching protesters in Tehran use Twitter and other social networking services to tap out messages and share photos of impromptu demonstrations has put that myth to bed, hopefully forever.

So far the New Mexico Finance Authority has refused to make public the subpoena the agency has received from federal prosecutors as part of an ongoing federal investigation into allegations of pay-to-play government.

The New Mexico Finance Authority has asked the office of Attorney General Gary King to look into trying to recover millions of dollars lost in a deal at the center of a federal pay-to-play investigation, the authority’s chairman said yesterday.

So how does Stephen Flance, the chairman of the New Mexico Finance Authority, know that the FBI has completed its investigation into pay-to-play allegations involving one of the state agency’s deals?
Flance told state lawmakers that the FBI had completed its investigation and that the findings were with the U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in Washington. Flance [...]

The chairman of the state agency at the center of a federal investigation into pay-to-play allegations against Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration said today that the investigation is complete and has been forwarded to the office of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

The New Mexico Finance Authority is refusing to release any subpoenas it has received as part of a federal corruption investigation looking into the Richardson administration. But Richardson’s office is releasing such documents in response to requests made under the state’s Inspection of Public Records Act.

“Don’t ask me.”

That’s what Joe Gosline said he was told when he inquired in 2004 about how CDR Financial Services went from scoring in the lower half of a group of companies that bid on a lucrative state bond contract to being recommended for the job, according to a weekend article in the Albuquerque Journal.

Though at least two other state agencies have publicly released similar documents, the New Mexico Finance Authority is refusing to hand over subpoenas it has been issued in the federal investigation into allegations of pay-to-play in the Richardson administration.

You know those financial deals — called interest-rate swaps — that CDR Financial put together for the New Mexico Finance Authority as an adviser on the GRIP project? (These are deals that are part of the focus of an ongoing federal probe that has reached into the governor’s office.) Well, it seems that because the [...]

The New Mexico Finance Authority is putting up $16 million of collateral on complex financial transactions at the heart of a federal probe into an alleged pay-to-play scheme, The Associated Press reports. And officials are now wondering if the agency received good advice from outside advisers.
Oops. Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez’s administration apparently inked a new [...]

Investigators want to know if Richardson administration doled out investment consulting fees (”play”) in return for political contributions (”pay”). What New Mexico taxpayers need to know is, did insiders game the process to benefit themselves with the public’s money?

CDR Financial Products is the company at the center of the investigation involving Gov. Bill Richardson and the New Mexico Finance Authority.
As we’ve mentioned, CDR received a lucrative contract with NMFA, despite the fact that it did not rank highest among the firms that responded to the agency’s request for proposals. Smith Barney/Ryan Labs scored [...]