Correra made millions more in Education Investment Bd deals
By Trip Jennings 5/5/09 9:37 PM
Marc Correra, the son of a Richardson confidant, made more than $3 million
¡V and possibly more ¡V for his company on a half-dozen investment deals for
the Educational Retirement Board (ERB), state documents released on Tuesday
show.
The five-page document released by the ERB also suggests that Correra
earned an additional $2 million on a controversial deal that cost the state
$90 million in losses.
The deal in question involved $90 million in state investments by the
Educational Retirement Board and the State Investment Council with
Vanderbilt Financial Trust. Ultimately the state lost all the money it had
invested with Vanderbilt, and those losses are at the center of a
whistleblower suit filed last year by the ERB's former investment officer.
Frank Foy has claimed a pay-to-play culture pervaded some of the state's
investment agencies, an allegation that the ERB and the State Investment
Council and its officials have vigorously denied.
In the document, which details all ERB deals that incurred finders' fees,
the ERB noted that Vanderbilt is checking its records on who received a
finders' fee on the $90 million investment deal. But it went on to say that
a Vanderbilt representative had told an agency employee that "Vanderbilt
Capital Group paid Marc Correra $2 MM placement fee on the total $90 MM
State of New Mexico investment."
The money that Correra made in deals before the Education Retirement Board
is in addition to up to $11 million he earned in finders' fees from deals
before the State Investment Council, according to a document released last
month. It is unclear how much those fees were shared.
Correra is the son of Anthony Correra, a close friend of the governor.
Third-party agents ¡V individuals who are paid the finders' fees ¡X are paid
not by the state but by managers who try to interest the state, or any one
of several agencies that make certain investments, to put money into their
funds. In theory, those funds manage the state's investment and earn it a
return.
Scrutiny over finders' fees here in New Mexico has come after a investment
scandal exploded in New York last month only to reach deep into New
Mexico's practices as well.
A founder of Aldus Equity, the firm that advised New Mexico on some of its
investments, is alleged to have helped the son of the then-New York state
comptroller win a lucrative finder's fee in exchange for increased business
in that state. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo charged Aldus'
founder, Saul Meyer, with a fraud-related felony count last week.
Other figures who are prominent in the New York criminal probe have showed
up in New Mexico state documents.
A document released last month by the New Mexico State Investment Council
revealed that Henry "Hank" Morris, who has been indicted in the New York
corruption scandal, received finder's fees here in New Mexico.
Morris, a former aide to the New York comptroller, was among those indicted
as investigators examine millions of dollars in payments that hedge funds
and private equity firms paid to placement agents ¡X often called
third-party marketers ¡X during the tenure of former Comptroller Alan
Hevesi
http://newmexicoindependent.com/26708/correra-made-millions-more-in-deals-with-education-investment-board
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