Sonny Otero, who gave Richardson’s re-election campaign $50K in 2006 after his family made millions selling land to the state, also makes $26K a month from NMFA lease
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about a land deal the feds should add to the list of things they’re investigating as part of their probe into allegations of pay to play in the Richardson administration.
It’s a deal in which the state paid the family of Santa Fe contractor Sonny Otero millions for a parcel of land it apparently didn’t need. Then Richardson got a $50,000 campaign contribution from Otero for his 2006 re-election campaign.
Now The Santa Fe New Mexican is reporting on another deal Otero has with a state agency. He’s currently making $26,000 a month as landlord for the New Mexico Finance Authority, an agency that is tied up in the investigation into allegations that CDR Financial Products received a state investment contract that paid almost $1.5 million in exchange for $110,000 in contributions to two Richardson political committees and his 2006 gubernatorial re-election campaign.
From The New Mexican:
“Since March 2005, Sonny Otero and his wife, Lorraine Otero, have leased the three-story building at 207 Shelby St., between Alameda and Water streets, to NMFA.
“The lease started out at $18,750 a month for about 12,500 square feet of office space. That figure included utilities and downtown parking spaces for the agency’s 36 or so employees. A few months later, NMFA exercised its right of first refusal and leased an additional 2,500 square feet in the building, bringing the monthly rent up to $22,500. That figure also included utilities and parking.
“The rent went up again last year. In May 2008, the monthly rent increased to $26,000. The extra money, according to an amendment to the lease contract, was ‘to cover extraordinary utility costs, insurance, taxes and parking fees.’”
One noteworthy sentence from the article: “Without even being asked about it Wednesday, Sisneros said, ‘I never talked to Richardson about this.’”