Pay-to-play probe grinds on

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Months after Gov. Bill Richardson withdrew his presidential cabinet nomination there's still no indication whether a federal grand jury has found any wrongdoing involving two of his top aides.

pay-to-play allegations involving hisSo were some of bill Richardson's top aides involved in a pay to play scheme?

The mere fact that a federal grand jury began asking questions last summer about a possible pay-to-play deal involving political contributions and state contracts cost Richardson the job as President Obama's secretary of commerce.

Months later there's still no answer. The grand jury met again this week, and outside observers already are questioning how long it can poke around before time's up.

Grand jury proceedings going on in Albuquerque are so secret, the public likely won't know if grand jurors discussed the so-called pay to play case or something else. That would be typical of the experiences of Sam Winder, a former federal prosecutor not involved with the New Mexico case.

"I would not know until the day that I was going to the grand jury what cases were going to be presented," Winder told KRQE News 13. "It's cloaked with secrecy even for federal prosecutors."

Winder said that's why federal grand juries don't always act as quickly as the public expects.

In Albuquerque, grand jurors are considering whether governor Richardson's former chief of staff Dave Contarino and top aide David Harris pressured the state into two contracts with California-based CDR Investments.

CDR made $1.5 million, and the company contributed more than $100,000 to political committees controlled by the governor.

Key transactions in the case took place between April and June 2004. The statute of limitations to prosecute most federal crimes is five years.

"Hypothetically, if I knew that a five-year anniversary was coming up, I would be doing whatever I could to make sure my investigators are doing their work," Winder said.

But Winder added prosecutors may not be up against a hard deadline. Defendants in white collar crimes are often charged with conspiracy, which allows the government to stretch the statute of limitations beyond five years.

If the statute of limitations did apply, it probably would have expired Thursday.

That was the five-year anniversary of the state's first CDR deal.

Because grand jury proceedings are so secret no one is saying how much longer it will take.