{"id":7368,"date":"2009-08-21T12:01:23","date_gmt":"2009-08-21T19:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bradblog.com\/?p=7368"},"modified":"2010-08-26T13:53:28","modified_gmt":"2010-08-26T20:53:28","slug":"former-new-mexico-secretary-of-state-indicted-on-50-counts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=7368","title":{"rendered":"Former NM Secretary of State Indicted on 50 Counts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest blogged by Ellen Theisen, VotersUnite.Org<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Rebecca Vigil-Giron, who oversaw New Mexico elections for ten years, was indicted last Wednesday on 50 counts including fraud or embezzlement, money laundering, tax fraud, tax evasion, illegal kickbacks, tampering with evidence, and conspiracy. <\/p>\n

Like last year’s indictment of 13-year Monterey County, CA, Registrar of Voters, Tony Anchundo<\/a> on 43 criminal counts, and last March’s indictment of six Clay County, KY election officials<\/a> [corrected from “KS”<\/em>] for changing votes at voting machines and showing others how to do it, Vigil-Giron’s indictment reminds us that democracy thrives on checks, balances, and transparency — and is threatened by conditions that force us to trust in election officials. <\/p>\n

Ion Sancho, Leon County Supervisor of Elections in Florida, and Freddie Oakley, Yolo County Registrar-Clerk in California understand that threats to elections come from the insiders. They warn us — in their speeches and writings<\/a> — not to trust election officials. Vigil-Giron’s indictment warns us in a more sensational way…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In “Prosecutors allege the theft of millions of dollars<\/a>,” Heath Haussamen writes that Vigil-Giron was indicted by a grand jury along with three others: <\/p>\n

The others indicted are lobbyists Joseph Kupfer and Elizabeth Kupfer and Armando Gutierrez, who headed the company Vigil-Giron hired to help the state implement a federal voter education program.<\/p>\n

Joseph Kupfer was a lobbyist for the secretary of state. Elizabeth Kupfer, his wife, was the administrative services director for the Attorney General’s Office at the time in question.
\n…
\nVigil-Giron used federal funds to pay Gutierrez’s firm $6.3 million for advertising and voter education work leading up to the 2006 election. The federal audit found that the company can’t account for how more than $2 million of that money was spent.<\/p><\/div>\n

Haussamen summarizes the indictment: <\/p>\n

The 50 counts against each include:<\/p>\n

“\u00a2 Four counts of fraud over $20,000 or, in the alternative, embezzlement over $20,000.<\/p>\n

“\u00a2 11 counts of money laundering over $100,000.<\/p>\n

“\u00a2 Five counts of money laundering over $20,000.<\/p>\n

“\u00a2 Eight counts of tax fraud.<\/p>\n

“\u00a2 13 counts of tax evasion.<\/p>\n

“\u00a2 Four counts of making or permitting false public vouchers.<\/p>\n

“\u00a2 One count of soliciting or receiving an illegal kickback.<\/p>\n

“\u00a2 One count of offering or paying an illegal kickback.<\/p>\n

“\u00a2 Two counts of tampering with evidence.<\/p>\n

“\u00a2 One count of conspiracy.<\/p><\/div>\n

Meanwhile Vigil-Giron continues working<\/a> at the state Department of Workforce Solutions as a constituent liaison for the department’s labor and industrial division, because, according to Deputy Secretary Ken Ortiz, the indictment was for actions that are unrelated to her work with the department. <\/p>\n

Read the indictment here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest blogged by Ellen Theisen, VotersUnite.Org Rebecca Vigil-Giron, who oversaw New Mexico elections for ten years, was indicted last Wednesday on 50 counts including fraud or embezzlement, money laundering, tax fraud, tax evasion, illegal kickbacks, tampering with evidence, and conspiracy. Like last year’s indictment of 13-year Monterey County, CA, Registrar of Voters, Tony Anchundo on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,146],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-7368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election-irregularities","category-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7368\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7368"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=7368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}