Pay-to-play plea cites New Mexico deals

NEW YORK (KRQE) - An investment adviser who pleaded guilty to fraud in a New York pay-to-play scandal also claimed Tuesday he scammed the state of New Mexico to the benefit of politically connected New Mexicans.

However the identites of those who allegedly benefitted from adviser Saul Meyer's manipulations were not revealed.

At the time Meyer's New Mexico contract work for Dallas-based Aldus Equity involved advising the State Investment Council and the Education Retirement Board on where to invest billions of dollars in state funds.

"I had a duty to act in the best interest of the state of New Mexico," Meyer, in a statement read in court, acknowledged he had a duty to act in the best interests of the state of New Mexico but "on numerous occasions" had Aldus Equity recommend investments that were pushed on him by people with political connections in New Mexico.

"I did this knowing that these politically connected individuals or their associates stood to benefit financially or politically from the investments and that the investments were not necessarily in the best economic interest of New Mexico," he said.

Meyer's plea and accusations provide the latest twist in ongoing investigations into alleged insider dealings involving the administration of Gov. Bill Richardson and the investment of public money. A pending whistle-blower lawsuit alleges political involvement in state investments that went bad, and a federal investigation of another deal ended with a report that politics tainted the selection of the investment advisor.

The investigations have not resulted in any criminal charges here.

A spokesman for Gov. Bill Richardson issued a statement late Tuesday denying any knowledge of Meyer's activities.

“The Governor’s Office is not aware of any activity outlined by the Attorney General of New York," spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said in the statement. "As we have previously explained, Governor Richardson never spoke with Marc Correra about any state investments, and the governor never had any personal contact with Saul Meyer.” and saying the governor had never met Meyers."

Marc Correra shared in $22 million in commissions acting as a third-party placement agent, basically a middleman working to find investors for state investments. He has denied any wrongdoing, and state investment agencies have since stopped using placement agents.

State investment agencies also fired Aldus Equity as an adviser after details of the New York case first became known.

Meyer, a co-founder of Aldus Equity, admitted the company paid $300,000 fee to a political consultant to a New York state official in exchange for receiving a $175 million pension-fund deal.

He pleaded guilty on Friday, but the plea was sealed until Tuesday and released as Raymond Harding, a political powerbroker in New York, pleaded guilty to accepting kickbacks.

Reporters asked New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo the names of the New Mexicans involved with Meyer. He instead directed all questions to U.S. Attorney Greg Fourratt in Albuquerque who declined to comment.

A spokesman for the State Investment Council said the agency is cooperating with investigators.

------------------

The Associate Press contributed to this report.