Gov. Bill Richardson’s nonprofit foundation has until Feb. 19 to release a list of donors and other information to a man who has alleged a pay-to-pay scheme involving the Richardson administration in a lawsuit filed on behalf of the state, unless a subpoena that was filed today is quashed.
Frank Foy has issued a subpoena demanding that the foundation to release the records, his attorney announced today in a news release. Foy’s lawsuit alleges that the state lost $90 million in investment deals made in exchange for a little more than $15,000 in contributions to Richardson’s 2008 presidential campaign.
Donors have been able to secretly give to the Moving America Forward Foundation because it’s a nonprofit. The foundation had taken in $1.7 million in donations as of the end of 2007.
“Because (the foundation) is shrouded in secrecy, no one knows whether Moving America Forward Foundation was used as a conduit by people who wanted to buy business from the State of New Mexico,” Foy’s attorney, Victor Marshall, said in a news release announcing the subpoena.
Spokesmen for the governor did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The subpoena, which you can read by clicking here, also seeks documents related to the board of directors of the foundation, including minutes or notes of any board meetings; the management of the foundation, including minutes or notes of any management meetings; contributions, expenditures, receipts, disbursements and contributions that were discussed but never made; all records relating to any employee, officer or director of the foundation; any contracts in excess of $1,000; and financial or tax records.
The subpoena makes clear that it’s seeking documents that exist in any form, including e-mails, cell phone messages, recordings and computer data.
Foy’s lawsuit, which you can read by clicking here, was filed in July and unsealed earlier this month. As the former chief investment officer for the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board, Foy alleges that $40 million the educational board invested and another $50 million the State Investment Council invested with Vanderbilt Financial and affiliated companies was directly tied to the campaign contributions from Vanderbilt employees and family members to the governor’s campaign.
You can view a list of the contributions provided by Foy’s attorney by clicking here. If you’re looking for more information about the foundation, you can click here for my prior posting about it, which includes links to the nonprofit’s 990 filings with the IRS for 2005, 2006 and 2007.
The Moving America Forward Foundation is the nonprofit counterpart to a Richardson political action committee that’s at the center of the other pay-to-play controversy dogging the Richardson administration. The Moving America Forward PAC is one of two under investigation in the ongoing federal probe that derailed Richardson’s nomination to be commerce secretary. The federal probe centers around whether high-level Richardson staffers — not necessarily Richardson himself — engaged in pay-to-play politics.
Richardson also is not publicly named as a defendant in Foy’s lawsuit. State officials who have been publicly named as defendants are State Investment Officer Gary Bland and Bruce Malott, chairman of the educational retirement board. Several companies and officials tied to those companies have also been named.
However, there are a number of defendants in the case who have not been named publicly, and it’s possible Richardson is among them.
Foy’s lawsuit was filed under a state law intended to root out public corruption that allows people to sue on behalf of the state. Foy is seeking total damages that could exceed $300 million for the state. If an award is made, Foy would receive a percentage of the award for his work.
Update, Jan. 30, 11:15 a.m.
This posting has been updated to clarify that the subpoena could be quashed, so there’s no certainty the foundation will have to turn over the records.