馃攳
New Mexico House Majority Leader under investigation for racketeering, money laundering - YouTube
Channel: unknown
[1]
hello everyone we are going to rejoin
[3]
nbc's olympics coverage
[5]
shortly but we have breaking news to
[7]
share with you right now a
[8]
major corruption investigation involving
[11]
state representative
[12]
cheryl williams stapleton agents with
[14]
the new mexico attorney general's office
[16]
executed search warrants at her home and
[18]
business early this morning
[20]
and they're looking for evidence in a
[21]
case that includes allegations of
[23]
racketeering
[24]
money laundering and receiving illegal
[26]
kickbacks
[27]
so ryan laflin is live for us in the
[29]
newsroom right now so ryan you've been
[31]
going through those search warrants in
[33]
this
[33]
bombshell case what have you learned
[36]
well hi danielle this
[37]
is that 32 page search warrant that
[39]
shows what investigators
[41]
went looking for inside albuquerque
[43]
public school headquarters
[44]
now according to investigators with the
[47]
state attorney general's office
[48]
representative sheryl william stapleton
[50]
has connected with phony companies
[52]
essentially stealing money from
[54]
albuquerque public schools her employer
[56]
which is all funded by your tax dollars
[59]
this investigation is
[60]
rocking new mexico politics william
[63]
stapleton
[64]
is a democrat who serves as the house
[65]
majority floor leader at the round house
[68]
now law enforcement agents surprised
[70]
william stapleton at her
[71]
southeast albuquerque home very early
[74]
this morning
[74]
as they executed a search warrant there
[76]
as well looking for evidence in this
[78]
case
[78]
now according to this search warrant
[80]
william stapleton funneled money from
[82]
albuquerque public schools
[83]
through a bogus robotics management
[86]
learning company
[87]
amassing over five million dollars going
[89]
all the way back
[90]
to 2006 and then she allegedly funneled
[93]
money
[94]
from this fake robotics company to her
[96]
other private interests
[98]
like this restaurant she owns this
[100]
restaurant and our cameras were there as
[102]
agents showed up to a taste of the
[103]
caribbean this morning it's right on
[105]
central across from unm
[106]
and the warrant shows 57 different
[109]
checks for over 300 000
[112]
came from that robotics company and went
[114]
to the restaurant
[115]
now we are working to gather more from
[117]
state leaders so far and we've heard
[119]
from
[119]
governor michelle lujan grisham this
[121]
morning she said in a statement
[123]
in part that she's deeply troubled by
[125]
the reports
[126]
of this of this law enforcement
[128]
investigation into representative
[130]
stapleton adding
[131]
new mexicans expect and deserve elected
[133]
officials who regardless of party
[136]
will put the people before themselves
[138]
anything less violates a sacred public
[140]
trust
[140]
and must be dealt with accordingly we
[143]
also just received a statement from
[144]
members of the house democratic
[146]
leadership they say
[147]
they are shocked and dismayed by the
[149]
deeply troubling allegations against
[151]
representative stapleton and will
[152]
cooperate
[153]
with this investigation but all in all
[155]
we're looking at over
[156]
5.3 million dollars going to this
[159]
robotics company
[160]
and then nearly 1 million from that
[162]
going to william stapleton's
[164]
private interests the state has moved to
[166]
seize those assets as this criminal
[168]
investigation is really
[170]
just getting going danielle a lot to dig
[172]
into ryan thank you so now we've got
[174]
four investigator chris ramirez who's
[176]
been on top of this
[177]
investigation and you're thinking chris
[179]
that the scope of this
[180]
is going to go broader yeah and here's
[182]
why we recently had a conversation
[184]
with attorney general hector balderas
[185]
and he had mentioned that it's possible
[188]
that this scheme this alleged scheme has
[189]
been going on for several years
[191]
and it's possible that leadership past
[194]
and present at
[196]
aps may have known about this but the
[199]
net
[199]
gain for aps was so much so because
[202]
she's a legislator she's a very powerful
[204]
legislator
[205]
she's in control of the state's finances
[207]
as a legislator
[208]
so she was able to allow aps to get a
[211]
lot
[212]
of money over the course of a lot of
[214]
years and so if you're an aps leadership
[217]
and you're letting her skim off the top
[220]
there could be
[221]
potential criminal liability on your end
[223]
if all these allegations are true
[225]
and that's a real problem if you're an
[227]
atheist administrator
[229]
and you knew about what was going on and
[231]
you never reported it
[233]
that could be that could spell criminal
[235]
trouble for you so we'll see how that
[236]
unfolds what kind of political
[238]
consequences do you think here
[240]
well as ryan mentioned she is in house
[243]
leadership
[244]
she is the house floor leader and that
[247]
puts her in a in a position of power
[249]
and so i know i've spoken with a lot of
[252]
people in
[253]
political circles today and there's a
[255]
lot of shock and dismay
[256]
of these allegations you know for house
[260]
leadership
[261]
i think they really have to get together
[263]
pretty soon and figure out how they're
[265]
going to pr this because quite frankly
[267]
this doesn't look good for democratic
[269]
leadership in new mexico right now
[271]
and of course if she is charged and
[274]
found guilty then we're looking at
[276]
criminal consequences for william
[277]
stapleton yeah and it's important to
[279]
mention that at this point
[280]
what we have are search warrants there
[282]
is not an arrest warrant so there are no
[284]
criminal charges against sheryl william
[287]
stapleton
[288]
right now hector balderas the attorney
[290]
general says that could potentially
[292]
change in the next couple of weeks
[294]
if she's charged if she is found guilty
[296]
of what she's alleged to have done here
[298]
there is serious prison time years of
[301]
prison time
[302]
that she could potentially be facing all
[304]
right we're gonna have much more at five
[305]
once again want to recap for you the
[307]
home and businesses
[308]
of representative cheryl william
[310]
stapleton
[311]
raided this morning by a.g agents they
[314]
also served a warrant on aps
[316]
headquarters in uptown last night
[318]
she's under investigation for
[319]
racketeering money laundering
[321]
and receiving illegal kickbacks again
[323]
full coverage tonight at five o'clock
[325]
right now we do want to get you back to
[327]
the olympics
Most Recent Videos:
You can go back to the homepage right here: Homepage