<div id="subtitle">AP review shows firms handling NM investments were big political donors to Gov. Richardson</div><div><p>Money managers, brokers and their marketing agents that secured public investment business in New Mexico in recent years have given more than $640,000 to Gov. Bill Richardson's campaigns and political organizations since he first ran for governor in 2002, an Associated Press analysis shows.</p><p>The AP review of campaign finance records identified such contributions to Richardson's 2002 and 2006 gubernatorial campaigns; to his unsuccessful campaign for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination; and to other Richardson political committees.</p><p>Donations by the investment industry recently have come under fire from federal regulators. Last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed rules to ban investment advisers from doing business with state and local government agencies for two years if they make political contributions to officials with influence over public investment decisions.</p><p>SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said in a statement that the proposal was aimed at curtailing the "corrupting and distortive influence of pay-to-play practices." It comes amid a corruption scandal involving a New York state pension fund — in which New York prosecutors say investment firms paid kickbacks to win pension business.</p><p>In New Mexico, a whistleblower lawsuit also alleges that political influences swayed state investment decisions.</p><p>Federal investigators have been looking since last year at the awarding of work on a bond financing package to one of the governor's political donors, and a federal grand jury subpoenaed documents in April related to state investments and placement agents who solicited public investment business.</p><p>No charges have been filed in New Mexico, however, and the Richardson administration maintains there has been no wrongdoing.</p><p>Among the Richardson contributions reviewed by the AP were $50,381 from Leo Hindery Jr., the founder of a New York City-based private equity firm, InterMedia Partners, that won a $30 million commitment of New Mexico taxpayer money in May 2006. About half the contributions went to Richardson's re-election campaign in December 2005, while InterMedia was under consideration for the state investment. Hindery and InterMedia declined comment.</p><p>About four months after the State Investment Council approved the deal, Hindery contributed $25,000 to Richardson's re-election. He personally was involved in the New Mexico investment deal. Hindery attended a meeting in New Mexico in April 2006 of the council's private equity advisory committee at which it endorsed the InterMedia investment.</p><p>Hindery, a cable television pioneer and former telecommunications executive, is a major donor to Democrats across the country and in 2004 considered seeking the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee.</p><p>While Richardson served as chairman of the Democratic Governors' Association in 2005 and 2006, Hindery contributed $200,000 to the group, which helped Democratic gubernatorial candidates across the country. Those DGA contributions were made by Hindery several months before and after the state approved the $30 million investment with his private equity firm.</p><p>Charles Wollmann, a spokesman for the council, said the agency's outside adviser usually did several months of "due diligence" reviewing potential investments before they were submitted to the council and its advisory committee for a vote. The InterMedia investment was mentioned in investment council documents in November 2005 as being among the "on deck" funds under consideration by the council's adviser, he said. That's a month before Hindery's initial contributions to Richardson.</p><p>Richardson also has received $25,800 since 2002 from a Los Angeles-based firm, Wetherly Capital Group, and its principals, which served as placement agents on several New Mexico investments. They shared in $3 million in fees for investments by the council and the Educational Retirement Board, according to agency records.</p><p>Wetherly's founder, Dan Weinstein, contributed $10,000 to a Richardson political committee, Moving America Forward, two weeks after the council approved a $25 million investment in 2004 in which Wetherly served as a broker.</p><p>Weinstein said in a statement "there was absolutely no connection between any contributions to Gov. Richardson and any potential business with the State Investment Council." Weinstein also said he never discussed the $25 million investment deal with Richardson.</p><p>All of the contributions to Richardson's operation were made before the State Investment Council — which oversees investments of New Mexico endowment funds valued at more than $11 billion — recently banned political contributions by firms and individuals that contract with the agency or are seeking state investment deals. The contribution ban covers principals of investment firms, their family members and any of a company's third-party agents.</p><p>The council, with Richardson's support, approved the contribution restrictions in late May in response to the New York corruption scandal. Some investment firms and marketing agents implicated in the New York pension probe also did business with New Mexico's public investment agencies.</p><p>Under the new policy, the council will not do business with companies that have made certain contributions — such as to the governor or other elected officials who serve on the council — during the previous two years. The council clarified the restrictions last week, saying they will apply to contributions made starting now and in the future.</p><p>Without that change, many of the companies that had donated money to Richardson would have been barred from new state investment business.</p><p>State Investment Officer Gary Bland says proposed investments are made based on their merits — not on political considerations.</p><p>"My job as an investment professional is to be responsive to my fiduciary duty," Bland said in a recent interview. "You can bring God in but if he doesn't have a good product, it isn't going to get done."</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=56074915&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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