{"id":370,"date":"2006-07-13T17:21:00","date_gmt":"2006-07-13T23:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/07\/breaking-news-it-appears-county-investment-advisor-not-treasurer-is-to-blame-for-lost-money\/"},"modified":"2006-07-13T17:21:00","modified_gmt":"2006-07-13T23:21:00","slug":"breaking-news-it-appears-county-investment-advisor-not-treasurer-is-to-blame-for-lost-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/07\/breaking-news-it-appears-county-investment-advisor-not-treasurer-is-to-blame-for-lost-money\/","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING NEWS: It appears county investment advisor, not treasurer, is to blame for lost money"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It appears that Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place>\u2019s investment adviser, not the treasurer, is going to have to answer some tough questions about lost public money. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In question are two $10 million wire transfers of county money made on April 21 and May 12, both Fridays. Neither was invested until the following Monday, and the county lost some $10,000 in interest because of that.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Robert Burpo, a former state representative from Albuquerque, told the county commission during a tough grilling on Tuesday that, had his company, LPL investments, received the money before 1 p.m. Mountain Standard Time on both Fridays, he would have been able to invest it in time for it to earn interest during the weekend. He said repeatedly he did not know where the money was for those weekends, but said he had not received it in time to invest it.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Wire transfers leave the county\u2019s bank, Wells Fargo, and are then sent to a federal bank before being transferred to the Bank of New York and then to LPL Investments, Burpo\u2019s company.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

During Tuesday\u2019s commission meeting, Burpo speculated that the money was probably in the hands of the feds or Bank of New York and not earning interest over the two weekends in question.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Some commissioners expressed doubt at the meeting, saying they believed someone must have earned interest on that money, and they wanted to know who.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The Bank of New York told the county auditor Thursday afternoon that the April 21 wire transfer was in LPL\u2019s account by 1:04 p.m. Eastern Standard Time \u2013 11:04 a.m. local time, according to Commissioner Bill McCamley. The May 12 transfer was in LPL\u2019s account by 2:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, a full 30 minutes before Burpo\u2019s deadline to invest it for the weekend.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Burpo could not immediately be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Treasurer Jim Schoonover, who at Tuesday\u2019s meeting took credit for both snafus, said he has requested written records from the Bank of New York that will prove what the county was told Thursday.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI would not have transferred the funds if I had thought they would not have been invested that day,\u201d Schoonover said. \u201cI\u2019m trying to get proof of what happened. I want it in writing.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

This would be good news for Schoonover, who has been the subject of repeated probes by the county\u2019s internal audit advisory committee for months. Schoonover has worked hard and significantly increased the amount of interest the county is earning from its investments, but smaller issues that have created the appearance of possible impropriety have tarnished his work.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The question remains, then, what did Burpo\u2019s firm do with $20 million in public money during those weekends? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It appears that Do\u00f1a Ana County\u2019s investment adviser, not the treasurer, is going to have to answer some tough questions about lost public money. In question are two $10 million wire transfers of county money made on April 21 and May 12, both Fridays. Neither was invested until the following Monday, and the county lost […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370","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=370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}