Several news articles from the last few days shed new light on the pay-to-play allegations swirling around Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration.
The first, from Bloomberg, reveals that the federal grand jury investigating the allegations issued a subpoena on Sept. 22 of last year to the governor’s office seeking communication between the governor’s office and companies tied to the investigation.
It’s no surprise that the subpoena was issued. What is interesting is that it was done in September. It wasn’t until December that Bloomberg became the first to report publicly that what had initially been an FBI investigation had grown into a more serious grand jury probe, but the new article reveals that the grand jury had already been investigating for months at that point.
The second article, from The Associated Press, reports that New Mexico has had to come up with $16 million in collateral to cover a drop in value of the “complex financial transactions at the heart of” the federal probe.
“The unexpected need to post the money has the New Mexico Finance Authority questioning whether it received adequate guidance from outside advisers in assembling a complex transportation bond financing plan in 2004 for the Richardson administration,” the article states.
Among those advisers? CDR Financial Products, the company at the center of the grand jury probe, of course.
The last is an Albuquerque Journal article that probes the lost luster surrounding the complex financial transactions that were once touted, according to the newspaper, as “a state-of-the-art financing tool that would help New Mexico stretch its highway improvement dollars.”
Each article is worth a read when you get a chance.