Pay To Play: FBI has Grand Jury knock on Bill Richardson’s door

Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) — A Federal grand jury is investigating how a company that advised Jefferson County, Alabama, on bond deals that threaten to cause the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, did similar work in New Mexico after making contributions to Governor Bill Richardson’s political action committees.

The grand jury in Albuquerque is looking into Beverly Hills, California-based CDR Financial  CDR Financial Products Inc., which received almost $1.5 million in fees from the New Mexico Finance Authority in 2004 after donating $100,000 to Richardson’s efforts to register Hispanic and American Indian voters and pay for expenses at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, people familiar with the matter said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation asked current and former officials from the state agency if any staff members in the governor’s office influenced CDR’s hiring, said the people, who declined to be identified because the proceedings are secret. Richardson, who is President-elect Barack Obama’s designate for Commerce Secretary, has a staff of at least 30 people.

Gee Bill. I do hope this doesn’t endanger that Big Shot Commerce job you got as reward for turning your back on the people who blew the dust off of you when you were nothing. A lot of us once liked you a lot.

The New Mexico probe comes two years after the FBI searched CDR’s offices as part of a nationwide investigation into whether banks and advisers conspired to overcharge local governments on financing deals. That probe by the New York office of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division is ongoing, and CDR says it is cooperating.

“They’re looking at everything related to CDR,” William Sisneros, the finance agency’s chief executive officer, said of the FBI probe. “They’re just trying to evaluate all the relationships to see what CDR was doing for the money.”

Guess what else, folks?

The investigation reflects another front in nationwide efforts by U.S. prosecutors to investigate so-called pay- to-play in the municipal bond market. The term refers to banks and advisers who make political contributions or personal gifts to public officials in return for fee-paying financing assignments.

It’s about time somebody cleaned the filthy house that is politics in this country.  This is going to last for a long time, because one of these slobs always leads to another one just like him.  Pay To Play is a way of life for these pigs. All except Barack Obama of course. He did it all by himself. And right there in Chicago, of all places….

It’s just too bad we can’t start over completely with Congress too. You know, file Chapter 11, restructure and throw the  whole lot of them out on their asses.  I’m beginning to believe there are only two kinds of people in Congress. Those who deal and get caught and those who deal and haven’t been caught.