Bruce Malott
News that the chairman of the state’s teacher pension fund resigned after the Albuquerque Journal learned of a controversial loan he had received angered New Mexico’s gubernatorial candidates.
“When I learned about this loan in today’s paper, it made me angry and disappointed – and New Mexicans have every right to be angry about this as well,” Democrat Diane Denish said in a prepared statement. “Obviously Mr. Malott knew this was a clear conflict that should have been disclosed. He should have disclosed it and resigned a long time ago.”
Denish also said she will donate $4,100 in campaign contributions from Bruce Malott to an educational program.
Of course, Denish’s Republican opponent, Susana Martinez, used the situation to attack Denish.
“…it is clear that the culture of corruption is deeply rooted in the Richardson/Denish Administration and we are finding more conflicts and wrongdoing every day,” Martinez said in a prepared statement. “Denish stood by Gov. Richardson’s side and has strong ties with almost all the individuals making headlines for their crooked deals, which have held New Mexico back. New Mexicans have a right to know who else in the Richardson/Denish Administration and their boards had financial interests in these taxpayer-funded deals.”
The Journal reported Thursday that Malott, the chairman of the state’s Educational Retirement Board, resigned after “a Journal interview concerning a $350,000 loan he received from Anthony Correra — a Richardson insider whose son Marc shared in millions of dollars in finder’s fees from the pension fund’s investments.”
From the Journal:
“Accompanied by four lawyers, an investigator and a publicist, Malott said during the interview that he borrowed the money from Anthony Correra in August 2006 to pay federal taxes of more than $290,000 and state taxes of more than $50,000 that he owed because of a failed tax shelter.
“Malott said he had no idea at the time of the loan that Marc Correra had been getting fees paid by companies that landed investment deals with the ERB, which Malott has chaired since 2005, and the state Investment Council.”
The Journal also gives us the greater context:
“The ERB and (State Investment Council) investments have been the focus of criminal and regulatory review by federal investigators.
“The finder’s fees Marc Correra received have been of particular interest to the federal grand jury investigation since they became public in the spring of 2009. He shared in more than $4 million in fees for investments made by the teachers retirement board. That total grows to more than $22 million when state Investment Council business is added.”
“Aldus Equity Partners, a now-defunct Dallas firm, was an adviser to the state Investment Council and the ERB.
“The company’s founding partner, Saul Meyer, pleaded guilty to a felony charge in the New York scandal last year and said during his plea that his company made recommendations on New Mexico investments ‘that were pushed on me by politically connected individuals in New Mexico.’”
We’re still waiting to the identities of those connected individuals.
The New Mexico Independent tells us why this news could be a big deal in the governor’s race.
“All of these stories that we have been seeing related to investment and state’s management of investments, they have a cumulative affect over time, but no one story does the trick,” pollster Brian Sanderoff of Research and Polling Inc. was quoted by The Independent as saying. “There’s this guilt by association that can be effective if people buy its veracity.”