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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Governor Bill Richardson and the Alleged Bank Loan Schemer |
| 2009-11-28 |
| Hassan Nemazee is a longtime Democratic money man who has raised campaign donations for the likes of President Obama and Hillary Clinton. So for Democrats it was a bit uncomfortable last August when Nemazee was arrested and later accused of perpetrating a $292 million Ponzi-esque scheme in which he created bogus collateral to borrow from one bank in order to pay off another. (The lenders entangled: Bank of America, Citibank and hsbc.) Nemazee pleaded not guilty to bank fraud. But now it may be unsettling for New Mexico citizens to learn that a New York firm Nemazee partly owns has a four-year contract to manage $200 million of the state's public money. Both before and after Carret Asset Management got the contract in 2007, Nemazee and others connected with it gave campaign contributions to Democratic New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. The contract with the State Investment Council has yielded $1.7 million in fees for Carret. In July 2006 Nemazee contributed $5,000 to Richardson's gubernatorial campaign. A month later a company run by Alan Quasha, cochair of Carret and longtime business partner of Nemazee, gave $20,000. In late 2008 Nemazee, Nemazee's wife, Quasha and two other Carret employees contributed a total of $11,500 to Richardson's presidential campaign. By then Richardson had dropped out of the primary race, but his campaign committee was raising cash to pay off debts. Nemazee had been national finance chairman of rival Hillary Clinton's campaign. Nemazee's lawyer declines to comment. But Quasha is blunt. "We did not pay to play," he says, meaning the contributions had nothing to do with Carret's New Mexico contract. He insisted that Nemazee, until recently cochairman of Carret, was a "minority shareholder and had no executive responsibilities." Quasha distances himself from Carret, too. He says he has no direct or indirect interest in the firm. Richardson's spokesman says the governor, who is chairman of the New Mexico State Investment Council, played no role in the hiring of Carret. The State Investment Council says the decision was made by Gary Bland, the state's chief investment officer, who was appointed by Richardson and resigned in October amid pay-to-play scandals unrelated to Carret. He could not be reached for comment. Earlier this year Richardson had to deal with allegations that he directed bond program contracts to a campaign contributor. A federal investigation into that has been dropped, but in January it caused Richardson to withdraw from his nomination as U.S. secretary of commerce. "In retrospect, a lot of things look a little funny," says Quasha. "They weren't intended to be funny, but sometimes you go back in history and you look at stuff and you go, 'Wow, that doesn't look good.'" |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 But now it may be unsettling for New Mexico citizens to learn that a New York firm Nemazee partly owns has a four-year contract to manage $200 million of the state's public money. No, its not unsettling. It's just another in a round of PRI style political behaviors that's SOP in the state. The Donks don't care about appearances, just about power and could care less about one of theirs, to include being found in bed with a dead girl or live boy, having apparent conflict of interests. The family takes care of business. It's about blood and power rather than the proper function of government as a disinterested agent to conduct the business of the state. That's why New Mexico will continue to compete against Louisiana and Mississippi for the bottom rungs of average personal income. $200 million is chump change in the upper tier of states. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-11-28 08:04 |