Today's Albuquerque Journal has an
about a key figure in the pay-to-play cases that have dogged Gov. Bill Richardson's administration. Unfortunately, you can't read it without buying the paper (or subscribing). Fortunately, SFR can summarize.
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From the Journal's Mike Gallagher:
The chairman of New Mexico's teacher pension fund, Bruce Malott, resigned Wednesday after a Journal interview concerning a $350,000 loan he received from Anthony Correra — a Richardson insider whose son Marc shared in millions of dollars in finder's fees from the pension fund's investments.
Accompanied by four lawyers, an investigator and a publicist, Malott said during the interview that he borrowed the money from Anthony Correra in August 2006 to pay federal taxes of more than $290,000 and state taxes of more than $50,000 that he owed because of a failed tax shelter.
Malott said he had no idea at the time of the loan that Marc Correra had been getting fees paid by companies that landed investment deals with the ERB, which Malott has chaired since 2005, and the state Investment Council.
Gallagher discovered the ruling on the Malott tax shelter in US Tax Court records filed in Washington, DC.
Gov. Richardson's office denied the governor knew that Malott—his
whom he evidently never told to resign from his ERB position, despite
—had accepted a large loan from Anthony Correra, another good friend of Richardson's. Correra's son,
, made off to
with the help of at least
he took from state investment agencies for selling them on money-losing investments.
All of a sudden, Malott is outraged. Per the Journal:
Asked why he didn't make a public disclosure of the loan when news of Marc Correra's involvement in the investment scandal became public in the spring of 2009, Malott said, "I felt duped and embarrassed...
Malott said Wednesday that he considered it "outrageous" that Marc Correra shared in millions of dollars in what are known as third-party placement fees from securities firms that got investments from the ERB.
At the time he borrowed the money, Malott said, "Anthony never told me his son was doing business with the state."
Spoken like a true fiduciary.
