{"id":4203,"date":"2009-02-03T15:03:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-03T21:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/02\/contarino-named-as-john-doe-2\/"},"modified":"2009-02-03T15:03:00","modified_gmt":"2009-02-03T21:03:00","slug":"contarino-named-as-john-doe-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/02\/contarino-named-as-john-doe-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Contarino named as John Doe #2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Governor\u2019s office calls pay-to-play lawsuit \u2018a big joke\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Dave Contarino, Gov. Bill Richardson\u2019s<\/a> right-hand man who was already at the center of a federal investigation into pay-to-play allegations in the administration, was publicly named today as the man who allegedly ordered another pay-to-play deal detailed in a civil lawsuit.<\/p>\n

In unsealing the identity of John Doe #2, Frank Foy, the former chief investment officer for the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board<\/a>, is publicly alleging that Contarino ordered other state officials to make investments with Vanderbilt Financial and affiliated companies in exchange for a little more than $15,000 in contributions to Richardson\u2019s 2008 presidential campaign, which Contarino managed. Foy\u2019s civil lawsuit, filed on behalf of the state, alleges that the state lost $90 million in the investment deals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can read the lawsuit by clicking here<\/a>, and the notice of the unsealing of John Doe #2\u2019s identity by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Contarino wrote in an e-mail that a comment is \u201ccoming soon.\u201d Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos released this statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis lawsuit is a big joke. Mr. Foy and his partisan lawyer are abusing the legal system by leveling blatantly false, political allegations against the governor\u2019s administration,\u201d Gallegos said. \u201cHopefully the court will hold them accountable for this unethical grandstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foy and his attorney, Victor Marshall of Albuquerque, filed the lawsuit last summer but left it sealed until last month, when the media was focused on covering scandal because of the other pay-to-play controversy — the ongoing grand jury probe<\/a> — dogging the Richardson administration. Then, last week, Marshall put out a news release informing the media that he had issued a subpoena<\/a> for records from the governor\u2019s non-profit foundation. Contarino\u2019s name was released today at a news conference that was announced on Monday.<\/p>\n

Under the law that allows Foy to sue on behalf of the state, he could personally pocket tens of millions of dollars if he\u2019s successful in his quest to win some $300 million in damages for the state.<\/p>\n

The other state officials who have been publicly named as defendants in the lawsuit are State Investment Officer Gary Bland and Bruce Malott, chairman of the educational retirement board. Those are the men Foy alleges that Contarino instructed to make the investments. Several companies and officials tied to those companies have also been named as defendants.<\/p>\n

But dozens of defendants\u2019 names remained sealed, including someone listed as John Doe #1.<\/p>\n

The other controversy<\/span><\/p>\n

In early January, Bloomberg reported<\/a> that the grand jury investigation of the other pay-to-play controversy was looking at whether Contarino solicited contributions from companies who worked on a lucrative state bond deal. That made the former chief of staff and campaign manager for Richardson the highest-ranking official to be publicly named as being under investigation in the case. Contarino, who Richardson once called his \u201cmost senior and trusted aide,\u201d said at the time that, \u201cIn all of my actions, I acted appropriately and I am confident that the investigation will bear out that fact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richardson defended Contarino<\/a> at the time, with Gallegos releasing a statement that said the governor \u201cis fully supportive of Dave Contarino and is confident that he always acted ethically and appropriately during his time as chief of staff.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Governor\u2019s office calls pay-to-play lawsuit \u2018a big joke\u2019 Dave Contarino, Gov. Bill Richardson\u2019s right-hand man who was already at the center of a federal investigation into pay-to-play allegations in the administration, was publicly named today as the man who allegedly ordered another pay-to-play deal detailed in a civil lawsuit. In unsealing the identity of John […]<\/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-4203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4203","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=4203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4203\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}