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http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/242354374465newsstate04-24-11.htm

ABQJOURNAL NEWS/STATE: Correras Took $8 Million to Paris

"We'll always have Paris."
Maybe that's true if you are Bogart and Bergman, but the famous line from "Casablanca" no longer applies to former Santa Fe broker Marc Correra and his wife, Claudia.
The Correras — he is a key figure in the New Mexico state investment scandal investigations, and she is a former Brazilian model, journalist and protocol officer for Gov. Bill Richardson — have filed dueling divorce petitions.
In keeping with the international soap opera theme, his petition was filed in Paris, hers in South Texas.
They are fighting over custody of their children, in what country the divorce should take place and who gets to control more than $8 million they took with them when they moved to Paris.
As grounds for the divorce, Claudia accuses Marc of adultery and mental cruelty and says a federal investigation into the state investment scandal prompted the couple's international relocation. They married in Hollywood in 1997 and moved to Santa Fe in 2002.
The couple said au revoir to New Mexico in August 2009, after federal criminal and regulatory officials began investigating Marc Correra's role in helping financial firms obtain billions of dollars in investments from the State Investment Council and the Educational Retirement Board.
Except for brief trips back to the United States, Portugal and Mexico, the couple have been living in Paris, renting a three-bedroom apartment near the Champs-Ã�â�°lysées for 4,500 Euros a month.
Marc Correra's petition says Claudia can remain at the Paris address as long as she pays part of the rent. He also wants her to pay half the school expenses for their children — 13,000 Euros a year.
A Richardson administration insider, Marc Correra shared in up to $22 million in previously undisclosed fees paid by the successful financial firms.
That disclosure, plus an admission by a key state adviser that he directed state investments for political purposes, led to the resignation of the state investment officer and has rocked New Mexico politics and government. While there have been a number of prosecutions in an investment scandal in New York state, and some overlapping players, no charges have been brought here.
Motive for move
The Correras have different takes on their move to Paris to 21 Rue Galilée near the Champs-Ã�â�°lysées.
In an affidavit filed in Texas state court, Claudia Correra said: "In 2009 Marc advised me that he was facing substantial financial and legal problems. He informed me that we needed to leave the United States temporarily until things died down. I understand that the problems which my husband might face include potential criminal charges."
In the same affidavit, she raised concerns about the federal investigation.
"The current federal investigation of my husband could lead to a federal indictment. It is my great concern that should this occur I would be disenfranchised in a foreign country: I would find myself with no job, no permanent home and no ability to care for my children."
She said their move to Paris was temporary and their apartment rented month-to-month.
Marc Correra describes it differently.
He says in court records that the couple had visited the city often and wanted to live there.
The move had nothing to do with federal investigations into third-party marketers and New Mexico investments, he said.
"I have never been charged, arrested or indicted for any offense, and I am confident that the government will take no legal action against me," he said in an affidavit filed with the Texas court.
He said he was paid by hedge funds and private equity funds to market their investments to New Mexico state entities.
"In early 2009, following a New York scandal involving a corrupt third-party marketer and the NY State Comptroller, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice and several states, (including New Mexico) opened many investigations into this business around the country," he said.
Correra blames regular and prominent news stories "that were very political in nature and generally critical of third-party marketers" for the state suspending investments in funds represented by third-party marketers.
"With my business prospects in New Mexico limited, Claudia and I decided to move to Paris."
It is a city, he says, that they have enjoyed visiting over the years.
In a 2004 story about her $20,000-a-year, part-time job as Gov. Bill Richardson's protocol officer, Claudia Correra said she had developed a love of Santa Fe nearly matching her adoration of Paris.
Money dispute
Claudia Correra filed her petition Dec. 16, 2010, in the Fort Bend County District Court in Texas west of Houston, where the couple own a home.
Her mother and sister live in the Katy, Texas, home, but she claims that as a couple, she and Marc have legal and residency ties to Texas.
In January, Marc Correra filed his own divorce petition more than 5,000 miles away in Paris.
At the heart of both petitions — besides living arrangements and child custody — is who gets to control more than $8 million transferred to French banks in 2010.
Four bank accounts holding the bulk of the cash were in Claudia Correra's name.
Marc Correra successfully asked the French court to freeze the accounts, blocking his wife's access to the $8 million in the Paris bank accounts.
"I do not maintain a separate bank account in France, but in July 2010 Claudia opened four accounts with Banque Lazard in France in her name only using funds from our joint account in the United States," Marc Correra told the Paris court. "These accounts total approximately 6 million euros (around $8.4 million) the bulk of which was money earned from my income."
Marc Correra, according to court documents, holds dual citizenship in the Untied States and Italy, and as a citizen of the European Union, he does not need a visa to live in France permanently.
Claudia Correra asked the Texas court to grant her a "disproportionate share" of their estate, because she is the primary caregiver for the children and Marc was at fault for the divorce.
In his French divorce petition, translated for the Texas court, Marc Correra claims the couple have been unemployed since their arrival in France, and he has received no income from his work as a "trader" in the United States since Dec. 31, 2009.
But Claudia Correra says in court filings that her husband travels 10 to 15 days a month on business throughout the world and to take care of his legal matters.
Her husband disputes the amount of traveling he has done over the past two years, claiming in court records that he makes business trips to the United States, "and other than a trip to Italy, for never more than four days at a time."
So far, it appears the Texas court is deferring to the French court ruling that, while Texas does have jurisdiction over Marc Correra, France is the home state of the children.
$6 million in income
Marc Correra says business dried up in 2010, but records show 2009 was a pretty good year — despite the federal investigations of state investment practices that started that spring.
The Correras in a joint return reported income of more than $6 million and taxable income of $5.4 million for 2009.
They paid federal taxes of almost $2 million, according to a lightly redacted 2009 federal income tax return attached to Marc Correra's Texas court filings.
Most of his income came from Ajax Investments LLC, a Chicago-based broker for which he did third-party marketing in New Mexico.
Through the Inspection of Public Records Act, the Journal has received numerous documents, including federal grand jury and Securities and Exchange Commission subpoenas asking for documents involving Marc Correra and various companies he was attached to that were involved in marketing investments to the New Mexico State Investment Council and the state teachers' pension fund.
From 2004 through early 2009, Correra received the bulk of third-party marketing fees, sharing in more than $22 million in fees from companies receiving state investments.
He served on the board of directors of four Santa Fe charities with Gary Bland, who resigned as state investment officer in October 2009 in the face of a no-confidence vote.
Bland was chosen for the post by a committee that included Marc Correra's father, Anthony, who became a close confidant of Gov. Bill Richardson.
A Dallas-based adviser was brought in under Bland, and the founding partner of that company, Saul Meyer, has admitted, in a guilty plea in New York, directing New Mexico investment business to benefit politically connected people.


Eric D. Schwerin
Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC
1010 Wisconsin Ave., NW
Suite 705
Washington, DC 20007
(202) 333-1880
eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com
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