{"id":4661,"date":"2009-06-17T16:41:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-17T22:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/06\/foy-seeks-contempt-charge-release-of-documents\/"},"modified":"2009-06-17T16:41:00","modified_gmt":"2009-06-17T22:41:00","slug":"foy-seeks-contempt-charge-release-of-documents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/06\/foy-seeks-contempt-charge-release-of-documents\/","title":{"rendered":"Foy seeks contempt charge, release of documents"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

An attorney for Amanda Cooper, who ran the Moving America Forward Foundation, calls the motion an \u2018irresponsible publicity stunt,\u2019 offers affidavit instead of documents<\/span><\/p>\n

Frank Foy, whose lawsuit<\/a> alleges pay to play in the Richardson administration, has asked a judge to hold the now-defunct Moving America Forward Foundation<\/a> (MAFF) and the Richardson political operative who ran it in contempt for refusing to produce records in response to a subpoena.<\/p>\n

Foy is also asking the judge in a motion filed Tuesday<\/a> to order that records be turned over by the foundation; the woman who ran the foundation, Amanda Cooper; and the foundation\u2019s accounting firm, Meyners + Co.<\/p>\n

Foy, through his attorney Victor Marshall, issued the subpoena in January<\/a>. It sought a list of donors and other information from Gov. Bill Richardson\u2019s<\/a> nonprofit foundation, which took in $1.7 million in donations through the end of 2007. The foundation dissolved several months ago.<\/p>\n

Foy\u2019s 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\u2019s 2008 presidential campaign. Foy has also pointed out that Anthony Correra<\/a>, a close friend of Richardson, was an MAAF director, and his son, Marc Correra<\/a>, shared in millions of dollars in controversial finder\u2019s fees for helping Vanderbilt Financial and other companies win state investment contracts.<\/p>\n

In the newest motion, Foy\u2019s attorney alleges that MAFF \u201cwas used as a conduit or vehicle for making kickbacks.\u201d The motion states that donations to the foundation \u201cincluded money from persons who were engaged in pay-to-play schemes involving the State of New Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n

The subpoena<\/a> seeks the evidence to back up those allegations.<\/p>\n

Cooper offers affidavit<\/span><\/p>\n

Cooper\u2019s attorney, Joseph E. Sandler of Washington, D.C., said in a prepared statement that Foy\u2019s newest motion is nothing more than an \u201cirresponsible publicity stunt.\u201d He said the foundation \u201chas nothing to do with\u201d Foy\u2019s case.<\/p>\n

Cooper, he said, \u201cis prepared to give (Marshall) an affidavit stating under oath, that NONE of the defendants in this case and NONE of the persons or entities mentioned in the Complaint — none at all — ever made ANY contribution to MAFF.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandler made that offer to Marshall in a Feb. 20 letter in which he wrote that the subpoena \u201cseeks to impose on a non-party the burden of searching for and producing documents that have no relevance whatsoever to the case.\u201d In offering the affidavit, Sandler wrote in that letter that he trusts that \u201csuch an affidavit would conclusively address the question of relevance and that, upon its receipt, you would withdraw the Subpoena.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandler said in his statement to me that Marshall never responded to the letter. In addition, Sandler said, Marshall \u201cfailed to send a copy of this latest \u2018Motion\u2019 to either Ms. Cooper or myself. But of course he did distribute copies of his motion to the press.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the new motion, Marshall wrote that the Feb. 20 letter from Sandler is \u201cobfuscatory, evasive and dilatory.\u201d He wrote that the points raised in the letter \u201cdo not constitute valid grounds for refusing to produce subpoenaed documents.\u201d<\/p>\n

The context<\/span><\/p>\n

Foy is the former chief investment officer for the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board<\/a>, one of two boards that invested the money with Vanderbilt. His 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.<\/p>\n

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. Several companies and officials tied to those companies have also been named.<\/p>\n

There are a number of defendants in the case who have not been named publicly, and it\u2019s possible Richardson is among them.<\/p>\n

MAFF is the foundation counterpart to a Richardson political organization that\u2019s at the center of another pay-to-play controversy dogging his administration. The Moving America Forward 527 organization is one of two under investigation in the federal probe<\/a> that derailed Richardson\u2019s nomination to be commerce secretary.<\/p>\n

That investigation, which is reportedly complete and has been forwarded to the office of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder for consideration<\/a>, centers around allegations that CDR Financial Products<\/a> received a state investment contract that paid almost $1.5 million in exchange for $110,000 in contributions to two Richardson political committees and his 2006 gubernatorial re-election campaign. CDR was paid to advise the NMFA on interest-rate swaps and restructuring escrow funds for $1.6 billion in bonds related to the transportation project dubbed GRIP, or Governor Richardson\u2019s Investment Partnership<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An attorney for Amanda Cooper, who ran the Moving America Forward Foundation, calls the motion an \u2018irresponsible publicity stunt,\u2019 offers affidavit instead of documents Frank Foy, whose lawsuit alleges pay to play in the Richardson administration, has asked a judge to hold the now-defunct Moving America Forward Foundation (MAFF) and the Richardson political operative who […]<\/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-4661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4661","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=4661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4661\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}