{"id":4204,"date":"2009-02-03T17:17:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-03T23:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/02\/contarino-calls-allegation-a-flat-out-lie\/"},"modified":"2009-02-03T17:17:00","modified_gmt":"2009-02-03T23:17:00","slug":"contarino-calls-allegation-a-flat-out-lie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/02\/contarino-calls-allegation-a-flat-out-lie\/","title":{"rendered":"Contarino calls allegation &#8216;a flat-out lie&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_IabUCQmoheQ\/SYjQ6DkKgZI\/AAAAAAAAKxk\/bbbZPl6gDHQ\/s1600-h\/Contarino,+Dave.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 120px; height: 160px;\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_IabUCQmoheQ\/SYjQ6DkKgZI\/AAAAAAAAKxk\/bbbZPl6gDHQ\/s200\/Contarino,+Dave.jpg\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298714657409368466\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Dave Contarino says an allegation that he ordered other officials to make state investments in exchange for a little more than $15,000 in contributions to Gov. <a href=\"http:\/\/governor.state.nm.us\/\" target=\"_blank\">Bill Richardson\u2019s<\/a> 2008 presidential campaign is \u201ca flat-out lie.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The allegation was made public earlier today when <a href=\"http:\/\/haussamen.blogspot.com\/2009\/02\/contarino-named-as-john-doe-2.html\">Contarino\u2019s name was unsealed<\/a> as a defendant in a civil lawsuit related to the state\u2019s losing <a href=\"http:\/\/haussamen.blogspot.com\/2009\/01\/guvs-administration-faces-new-pay-to.html\">$90 million in the investment deals<\/a> with Vanderbilt Financial and affiliated companies. Frank Foy, the former chief investment officer for the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmerb.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">New Mexico Educational Retirement Board<\/a>, is alleging in the lawsuit that Contarino instructed State Investment Officer Gary Bland and Bruce Malott, chairman of the educational board, to make the investments in exchange for the contributions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\u201cI never instructed Gary Bland or Bruce Malott to invest in anything,\u201d Contarino said in a statement that was just released. \u201cI wasn\u2019t even chief of staff at the time of this investment. I played no role in this investment and have no recollection of ever meeting Mr. Foy or anyone involved with Vanderbilt Investments.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Contarino, a former Richardson chief of staff and campaign manager, said he was \u201cnot aware\u201d of any contributions from people tied to Vanderbilt to the governor\u2019s campaign, and said \u201cthis entire accusation is a total fairy tale concocted by Mr. Foy and his attorney.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\u201cThis entire lawsuit &#8212; by a former employee &#8212; is irresponsible, and the claims are ridiculous and untrue,\u201d Contarino said. \u201cPeople are tired of political witch hunts. Enough is enough.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Meanwhile, Foy said today that the educational board made the investments at the direction of Malott, who he said \u201ctold me that it was Contarino\u2019s instructions,\u201d according to the <a href=\"http:\/\/newmexicoindependent.com\/17276\/whistleblower-says-he-was-pressured-by-richardsons-chief-staff\" target=\"_blank\">New Mexico Independent<\/a>. Foy made that statement at the news conference his attorney called to reveal Contarino\u2019s name. The news conference apparently became a shouting match between attorneys for Foy and Malott.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dave Contarino says an allegation that he ordered other officials to make state investments in exchange for a little more than $15,000 in contributions to Gov. Bill Richardson\u2019s 2008 presidential campaign is \u201ca flat-out lie.\u201d The allegation was made public earlier today when Contarino\u2019s name was unsealed as a defendant in a civil lawsuit related [&hellip;]<\/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-4204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4204","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=4204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4204\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}