DENVER — A federal grand jury in New Mexico is investigating accusations that Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration gave lucrative contracts to a California financier because he contributed heavily to the governor’s political action committees, a person familiar with the grand jury proceedings said Thursday.
Since August, federal investigators have been examining how CDR Financial Products Inc., of Beverly Hills, Calif., got two consulting contracts in 2004 worth about $1.4 million to advise the state on a large bond issue for building infrastructure, one of Mr. Richardson’s initiatives. The investigation was first reported in The Albuquerque Journal.
In 2003 and 2004, CDR’s president, David Rubin, a major Democratic contributor, gave about $100,000 to two political action committees controlled by Mr. Richardson, as well as $10,000 to his re-election campaign in 2005, according to published reports.
On June 18, 2004, three months after receiving the consulting work, Mr. Rubin’s firm gave $75,000 to a political action committee Mr. Richardson had formed to pay for himself and his staff to attend the Democratic National Convention in Boston that year, which he headed. The committee is called “Si Se Puede! (Yes We Can) Boston 2004.” Other companies that benefited from the bond sales gave $55,000, according to The Associated Press.
But Mr. Rubin’s largess to Mr. Richardson did not stop there. On Oct. 31, 2003, he gave $25,000 to Moving America Forward Inc., a political action committee controlled by Mr. Richardson and devoted to signing up Hispanic and American Indian voters, according to state election records.
Mr. Rubin also gave $10,000 to the Democratic Governors Association on March 25, 2004, according to Moneyline.cq.com, a Congressional Quarterly Web site. That December, Mr. Richardson became the group’s head.
What I really love is that Richardson is never identified as a Democrat, although it is mentioned that he got money from Rubin to attend the Democratic convention, four parapgraphs from the end of the article.
Boy these journalists are just so in the tank you just have to laugh.
Change we can believe in? Rezko, Wright, Ayers, Blago, Richardson.....
I think we have a culture of corruption in full flower! Some in money, some in ideas.
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