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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.
The SIC released four documents to the media last month in response to records requests: Two were subpoenas issued by a grand jury convened by the U.S. attorney. A third was a subpoena for records issued by the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission. The fourth was an Aug. 20 letter to then-State Investment Officer Gary Bland notifying him that an “enclosed subpoena” required him to testify before the SEC in Denver and asking him to fill out and return an “enclosed background questionnaire.”
Problem is, the subpoena and questionnaire referred to in the letter weren’t included in the package of documents released to the media. Asked about that, spokesman Charles Wollmann said the SIC believes the documents are public records, but it can’t locate them.
“You have everything that we have. It’s not that we’re trying to hide anything,” he said.
Wollmann said the intent of the subpoena is clear from the Aug. 20 letter that was released to the media: The SEC wanted Bland’s testimony in its investigation of the state’s public investment funds. Whether the missing documents would shed additional light on the situation isn’t clear.
Regardless, Sarah Welsh, executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, said the situation “points to a larger issue” – records retention.
“In order for the public to access public records, agencies have to hang on to them,” she said, adding that, for various reasons, “a lot of times public records can’t be located because they no longer exist.”
“It’s concerning that this public record vanished,” Welsh said.
Wollman said he could come up with two possibilities for what happened. He said Bland may be in possession of the documents. Or, he said, perhaps the SEC referred to the attachments in its Aug. 20 letter but did not actually send the attachments.
Bland could not immediately be reached for comment. His answering machine’s memory was full and would not allow NMPolitics.net to leave a message.
The scandal’s history
Bland resigned in October in the midst of the national investment scandal that is the subject of criminal and other investigations in New Mexico, New York and elsewhere.
Already, Saul Meyer, the former investment adviser to the SIC and New Mexico Educational Retirement Board, has admitted to recommending “investments that were pushed on him by politically-connected individuals in New Mexico” in pleading guilty to unrelated charges in New York. Meyer is reportedly cooperating with investigators in New Mexico.
Bland’s resignation, according to SIC Member Pat Lyons, the state land commissioner, came after SIC members learned that he had pressured investment firms to hire certain third-party marketers. Those third-party marketers – or “placement agents” who help investment firms get lucrative state contracts for a fee – are at the center of the scandal in New York and New Mexico.
Marc Correra, a placement agent who has shared in as much as $22 million in placement fees during Gov. Bill Richardson’s tenure, is among those who the SEC has sought information about in the course of its investigation.
Correra is the son of Anthony Correra, a prominent Richardson donor and friend who’s also been dragged into the controversy because he was involved in the hiring of Bland at the SIC.
Neither Correra has been publicly accused of wrongdoing.