Oh, there's fraud in New Mexico, all right.
New Mexico Secretary of State Dianna Duran has been facing
serious charges of fraud, embezzlement and money laundering:
Investigators with the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office are charging that Duran made massive transfers of money from campaign-related accounts to personal accounts over the last four years. According to the Attorney General’s Office, those transfers were often followed by large withdrawals from ATM’s at New Mexico casinos.
According to the complaint, Duran has taken more than $430,000 out of her bank accounts at New Mexico casinos in the last two years. The AG’s Office believes some of that money is campaign funding.
In some cases, the AG’s Office claims that it has evidence showing that Duran took checks for campaign donations, then put them in her personal bank accounts and didn’t report them as a campaign contributions.
Late last night, ahead of her scheduled court appearance today, she
finally resigned:
The news of Duran’s resignation became known publicly just after midnight on social media when Kari Fresquez, interim elections director in the Secretary of State’s Office, made reference to it in an email. Fresquez announced the cancellation of hearings on several proposed rules that were scheduled to be held today in the 11:18 p.m. Thursday message to unknown recipients.
Dianna Duran is a Republican, the first to hold the office of Secretary of State in New Mexico since 1928. Her key issue was
stricter voter ID laws and finding fraud:
"Fraud happens a lot in this state. That's why we need voter I.D.," Duran told The Associated Press last year during a campaign event that featured former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
There you have it! If anyone knows about fraud, it's Dianna Duran.