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Testimony implicates Richardson in pay-to-play scheme
Former Gov. Bill Richardson (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
Newly released testimony from an unrelated case implicates former Gov. Bill Richardson in pay to play in the awarding of a lucrative state contract to CDR Financial Products.
Rolling Stone was the first to report on the testimony from Doug Goldberg, a former CDR official, in an unrelated case. Then the Albuquerque Journal reported on it. From the Journal’s article:
“A former official with CDR Financial Products, Douglas Goldberg, testified as a prosecution witness in April in a federal criminal antitrust case involving bid rigging in the municipal bond industry.
“The antitrust case had no ties to New Mexico, but defense attorneys attempted to discredit Goldberg’s testimony by examining his role in CDR getting a 2004 contract with the New Mexico Finance Authority.
“Goldberg testified that he delivered a $25,000 political contribution to the governor at a fundraiser and that Richardson then said, ‘Tell the big guy I’m going to hire you guys.’
“Goldberg said he understood ‘big guy’ to mean his direct boss, Stewart Wolmark, who Goldberg testified had given him the check.
“Richardson’s attorney, Peter Schoenburg, said Friday, ‘Gov. Richardson denies any wrongdoing. The witness is not credible, the allegations are old and discredited, and the testimony is simply false.’”
As NMPolitics.net reported at the time, sometime in 2008 investigators began probing allegations that CDR Financial Products 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’s Investment Partnership.
The investigation ended in 2009 without charges being filed, but the U.S. attorney said at the time that Richardson and others investigated should not consider themselves exonerated.
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Get over Richardson….. For crying out loud, get over it. He did a good job while he was in office. The hatered the GOP feels for him is proof of that.
EW-aif:
I believe it must really depressing for your system to deny the most significant hope we have is PRAYER.
Yes TO, I get depressed whenever I see one of those “Prayer is our only hope” signs.
Richardson is a disgrace. He and his attorney can deny all they want, but there are plenty of people who know the truth. His denials would be laughable were it not for the damage this man did to so many while he was New Mexico’s commander in chief. Maybe we deserve to be at the bottom of every list if these are the type of leaders we’re going to keep embracing. We the people have a penchant for shooting ourselves in the foot. New Mexico is definitely one of the 50. The nation as a whole is in denial about everything real and important. Facts be damned…faith is all we need!
The ‘unrelated case’ was actually the outing of a new low for Wall Street.
“Someday, it will go down in history as the first trial of the modern American mafia” Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-scam-wall-street-learned-from-the-mafia-20120620#ixzz1zZ5WkZjh
The article appeared in The Rolling Stone on June 21 and was written by Matt Taibbi, author of Griftopia, a book I recommend for the stout at heart, it is difficult reading for the economics-impaired (like me), and I haven’t finished it yet.
I am wondering why this isn’t being discussed in the MSM. Goldberg was one of several high-level officials who turned states evidence to send the lower-level employees to jail, while he and the top brass walked.
This is just another ‘red herring’ throw away news article. The comment is juicy but not enough to warrant spending millions of tax payor dollars to end up with a “not guilty” verdict. I am neither excited nor convinced that a couple of sentences from an apparent ‘patsy’ would be sufficient to even warrant the headline. We have already seen the same headline re the new governor.
Let’s move on.
Justa:
Mis-deeds from the current gov’s office pale in comparison to the Big Bill corruption era.
Meet the old boss, same as the new boss.
I’m mystified. How do you get found guilty for pay-to-play in New Mexico? What do you think all those “campaign contributions” buys? We’ve legalized bribery in the United States. All campaigns should be publicly funded.