Attorney General Gary King (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
The Santa Fe New Mexican has discovered that, in spite of a prior statement from the Attorney General’s Office, an embezzlement investigation focused in part on the live-in girlfriend of a former Albuquerque mayor has been ongoing for more than three years.
From the newspaper’s article:
“They say time is relative.
“Apparently, the last few years at Attorney General Gary King’s office seem more like ‘several months’ to at least one staffer.”
That’s because the staffer previously told the newspaper that the AG’s office had received information about the alleged embezzlement of $3 million from a Santa Fe hospital “several months ago.”
But:
“That statement contradicted a statement from the Santa Fe hospital that CEO Alex Valdez had turned over relevant documents about the case to the attorney general in 2008.
“This week, the newspaper received documents as part of a public-records request that indicate the hospital representative was correct: King’s office has known about the allegations since early 2008 and began investigating them in September 2008.”
Oops, King told the newspaper – at least sort of:
“I guess I do have to do a personal mea culpa to everybody that thinks that several months ago apparently means like three months ago or something like that,” King said. “I think it was meant to be indeterminate.”
But:
“I don’t think ‘several months’ was particularly descriptive of how long we’ve had the case,” King said. “But I don’t think it was a lie, either. Several months is not a good description based on human experience of how much several months is, but basically it was trying to be a way to say that we can’t make a specific comment on any particular case that is under investigation.”
The AG is investigating allegations that the hospital’s former CFO and three others – including Loretta Mares, the live-in girlfriend of former Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez, who is now running for Congress – “conspired to embezzle $3 million from the hospital by billing for technology services that in some cases were never delivered,” the newspaper reported.
Read the full article here.