The New Mexico secretary of state, who oversees campaign finance
reporting and once bemoaned a "culture of corruption" in the state, has
been accused of using her election fund as a personal piggy bank at
jewelry stores, ATMs and casinos.
Secretary of State Dianna K. Duran already faces allegations of financial crimes, stemming from a separate August indictment.
Late Friday, the New Mexico Attorney General's Office alleged in a
criminal complaint that Duran also falsified campaign finance reports by
forging the name of a former state Senate colleague and claiming him as
her campaign treasurer.
The one-time colleague, Don Kidd, a banker in southeast New Mexico,
denied any involvement with Duran's campaigns in 2010 and 2014.
When asked by an investigator with the Attorney General's Office
why she would list him as treasurer, Kidd replied, according to the
complaint, "Well, I have no idea. I just don't know, that's amazing."
Duran faces 64 charges related to fraud, embezzlement and money
laundering. The Attorney General's Office alleged that she frequented
casinos across the state, withdrawing $430,000 between 2013 and 2014
from her personal accounts while also depositing campaign funds into her
personal accounts.
A 65th charge, identity theft, was added Friday after Kidd's
interview with an investigator. Duran's attorney could not be reached
for comment Saturday.
According to the charges, Duran's first statewide campaign in 2010
was the same year irregularities appeared in her campaign finance
disclosure forms.
In 2014, investigators received an anonymous tip about cash
deposits into Duran's personal accounts. When they dug deeper, they
found large cash and campaign deposits transferred between campaign and
personal accounts, according to the criminal complaint.
Some of the violations appear designed to avoid campaign finance
reporting requirements, such as a $5,200 check from Mack Energy
Corporation that was entered instead as a $2,900 contribution, according
to the complaint.
The difference allowed Duran to register Mack Energy's total
contribution — it had made other donations as well — as $10,400, the
maximum allowed by the state, according to the complaint.
A Republican first elected as secretary of State in 2010, beating
out the incumbent Democrat, Duran was part of a tide of conservative
elected officials nationwide who won political points by focusing on
possible violations of voter ID laws.
She took office in January 2011 and by March had referred 64,000
voter registration records to state police, citing irregularities. Duran
then took fire from Democratic legislators, public interest groups and
news organizations that said she overstated her case, scared voters and
withheld proof of her claims.
But criticism of Duran largely subsided until Aug. 28 of this year,
when the Attorney General's Office said that for years she had pilfered
from her campaign account to cover personal expenses.
She has not stepped aside during the investigation, leading to further speculation about her finances.
"She wants to hang onto her $85,000-a-year job as secretary of
State as long as possible," wrote Santa Fe New Mexican political
columnist Milan Simonich. "Her record of bank overdrafts explains why."
The state has set aside $250,000 for an impeachment investigation into Duran.
The state's prosecution of its top electoral official will be the
earliest and highest-profile test of New Mexico's public corruption law,
passed in 2012.
The law permits prosecutors to request an enhanced sentence for any
convictions of public corruption and to fine an individual in an amount
equal to their pay and fringe benefits from the time of the earliest
crime. In Duran's case, that would amount to close to $500,000.
