Hassan Nemazee is a longtime Democratic moneyman who has raised campaign donations for folks like President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Last August Nemazee was arrested and later accused of perpetrating a $292 million Ponzi scheme in which he created bogus collateral to borrow from Bank of America, Citibank and HSBC, causing his political friends to return his money or send it to charity.
Nemazee pleaded not guilty to the bank fraud charges, but it may be unsettling for New Mexico citizens to now learn that a New York firm that Nemazee partly owns has a four-year contract to manage $200 million of New Mexico public money. And both before and after the firm Carret Asset Management got the contract in 2007, Nemazee and others connected with it gave campaign contributions to New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. The contract with the State Investment Council, which oversees $12 billion in trust funds from oil and gas leasing fees, has so far yielded $1.7 million in fees for Carret.
In regards to CDR financial products and Richardson, it was alleged that CDR donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Richardson and affiliated groups in return for favoritism in winning government deals in regards to Richardson's GRIP program, which appears quite similar to what happened with Nemazee. For the Record Nemazee gave thousands to Richardson but also managed to be the National Finance Chairman of Hillary Clinton. For more on this from TPM read here.
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