{"id":34290,"date":"2011-12-08T07:25:51","date_gmt":"2011-12-08T14:25:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=34290"},"modified":"2011-12-12T06:32:23","modified_gmt":"2011-12-12T13:32:23","slug":"grand-jury-investigating-richardson-meets-tuesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/12\/grand-jury-investigating-richardson-meets-tuesday\/","title":{"rendered":"Grand jury investigating Richardson meets Tuesday"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Former Gov. Bill Richardson (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

How soon the grand jury is expected to complete its work and decide whether to issue indictments isn\u2019t known publicly<\/h4>\n

A federal grand jury is scheduled to meet next week as part of its ongoing investigation into an accusation that former Gov.\u00a0Bill Richardson<\/a>\u00a0had supporters pay off a woman to keep quiet about their alleged extramarital affair.<\/p>\n

The grand jury is expected to meet Tuesday in Albuquerque to hear testimony from witnesses, NMPolitics.net has learned. How soon the grand jury is expected to complete its work and decide whether to issue indictments isn\u2019t known publicly.<\/p>\n

The Santa Fe New Mexican was the first to report<\/a> that the grand jury is expected to meet next week, but the newspaper didn\u2019t report the specific day. The newspaper, like other news organizations including NMPolitics.net, has had a difficult time finding anyone close to the case to talk about it. From The New Mexican\u2019s article:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile rumors about the investigation are rampant, people with knowledge of how it is progressing are steering clear of making public pronouncements, meaning that no one is talking publicly about the inquiry.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefense lawyers representing those believed to have already testified before a federal grand jury in Albuquerque didn\u2019t return phone calls from\u00a0The New Mexican. Neither did attorneys or a spokesperson for Richardson.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd a spokeswoman for Kenneth Gonzales, the U.S. attorney for New Mexico, said last week that she could \u2018neither confirm nor deny the existence of any grand jury investigation into alleged criminal conduct.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The allegations<\/h3>\n

The Albuquerque Journal first reported on the federal investigation\u00a0in mid November<\/a>. The Wall Street Journal later reported<\/a> that Richardson\u2019s political allies allegedly \u201cgave $250,000 to placate a woman who was considering suing the governor in 2007, exposing their alleged extramarital affair\u201d while he was seeking the Democratic Party\u2019s 2008 nomination for president.<\/p>\n

And The New York Times has reported<\/a> that \u201ca sexual harassment claim was made against Mr. Richardson around 2007 by a woman connected to state government and that a settlement was discussed with one of the former governor\u2019s personal lawyers.\u201d The woman, The Times reported, \u201ccomplained privately in 2007 that she had felt pressured into having a sexual relationship with Mr. Richardson.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Times reported that the $250,000 payoff \u201cwas believed to have been wired to the woman\u2019s lawyer from a bank in Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n

The woman hasn\u2019t been named publicly. Neither have the witnesses and other potential defendants in the case, but NMPolitics.net has confirmed that Anthony Correra, a Richardson friend during his tenure as governor who has been in the news because of\u00a0another scandal<\/a>\u00a0under investigation, was in Albuquerque in early November when the grand jury was meeting there to hear testimony in the case related to the alleged extramarital affair.<\/p>\n

An update on the investment scandal probe<\/h3>\n

As to that other scandal in which Correra has been involved \u2013 a longstanding probe related to state investments that has already led to indictments and convictions in New York<\/a> \u2013 The Wall Street Journal had an update<\/a> today.<\/p>\n

The newspaper reported that the federal investigation into the investment scandal is ongoing but authorities \u201chave recently concentrated\u201d on the separate investigation into the alleged payment to keep the extramarital affair secret.<\/p>\n

From the Wall Street Journal article about the investment probe:<\/p>\n

\u201cA federal grand jury in Albuquerque has been looking into \u2018pay to play\u2019 complaints from former and current state officials, people familiar with the matter say. The officials contend in court filings and interviews that Mr. Richardson\u2019s close allies steered more than $2 billion of public money into investment funds run by money managers who in turn agreed to pay millions of dollars in consulting fees to high-profile Democratic fund-raisers and other supporters of Mr. Richardson.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Journal also named the \u201ckey players\u201d in that investigation:<\/p>\n

\u201cBILL RICHARDSON\u00a0Prominent Democrat, governor of New Mexico from 2003 to 2010. Controlled the state\u2019s investment council and pushed it to invest in private equity, hedge funds and venture-capital funds run by outside investment managers.<\/p>\n

\u201cANTHONY CORRERA\u00a0Former Wall Street analyst, friend and adviser to Mr. Richardson. Helped select the director of the State Investment Council and advised council members on investments. Co-hosted fund-raiser for President Barack Obama with Mr. Richardson.<\/p>\n

\u201cMARC CORRERA\u00a0Anthony\u2019s son. Served as treasurer of one of Mr. Richardson\u2019s political action committees. Received millions of dollars in secret payments, designated as marketing fees, from dozens of money managers the state hired, according to civil lawsuits pending in New Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cSAUL MEYER\u00a0Founder of Aldus Equity, which advised New Mexico on alternative investments. Pleaded guilty in New York in 2009 to steering pension-fund investments to managers who would pay kickbacks, and said he carried out a similar scheme in New Mexico. Awaiting sentencing.<\/p>\n

\u201cALAN HEVESI\u00a0Former New York State Comptroller and sole trustee of a state pension fund. Sentenced to one to four years in prison in April for official misconduct, after a probe that New Mexico officials say alerted them to \u2018pay-to-play\u2019 problems at the State Investment Council.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Journal quoted Richardson\u2019s \u201ccriminal defense lawyer,\u201d Peter Schoenburg of Santa Fe, as saying the governor \u201cwas not involved in day-to-day investment decisions\u201d and \u201cdid not know about any payments to outside advisers.\u201d Schoenburg was quoted as saying there has been \u201cno finding of wrongdoing on the part of Gov. Richardson.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal grand jury is scheduled to meet next week as part of its ongoing investigation into an accusation that former Gov. Bill Richardson had supporters pay off a woman to keep quiet about their alleged extramarital affair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[112,142,123,107],"class_list":["post-34290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-bill-richardson","tag-crime","tag-investment-scandal","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34290\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}