Michael A. Montoya (born May 4, 1952) is an American politician and former

Certified Public Accountant Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the title of qualified accountants in numerous countries in the English-speaking world. It is generally equivalent to the title of chartered accountant in other English-speaking countries. In the United Sta ...

who served as the 26th

New Mexico State Treasurer The state treasurer of New Mexico is an elected constitutional officer in the executive branch of the U.S. state of New Mexico. Thirty individuals have held the office of state treasurer since statehood. The incumbent is Tim Eichenberg, a Democra ...

from 1996 to 2002. Montoya was the first

Hispanic-American Hispanic and Latino Americans ( es, Estadounidenses hispanos y latinos; pt, Estadunidenses hispânicos e latinos) are Americans of Spanish and/or Latin American ancestry. More broadly, these demographics include all Americans who identify as ...

elected to the position.

Early life and education

Montoya is a native of Los Lunas, New Mexico. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from the

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado syst ...

Career

After earning his bachelor's degree Montoya, worked as a senior tax manager at

Ernst & Young Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and Pricewaterh ...

. He then served as director of the New Mexico Medicaid Fraud Unit and as Deputy New Mexico State Auditor. In 1990, Montoya ran unsuccessfully for

. In 1992 and 1993, he served as the deputy state auditor and director of the office's Medicaid Fraud Unit. In 2002, he launched an unsuccessful campaign for New Mexico's 2nd congressional district, losing to incumbent

Joe Skeen Joseph Richard Skeen (June 30, 1927 – December 7, 2003) was an American politician who served as a congressman from southern New Mexico. A conservative Republican, he served for eleven terms in the United States House of Representatives between ...

. Montoya was elected the 26th

in 1995, the first

to serve in the role. Montoya left office in 2002 and was succeeded by Robert E. Vigil.

Arrest and conviction

In 2005, Montoya and Vigil were arrested for accepting kickbacks from financial advisors. In 2007, Montoya was fined $25,000 and sentenced to 40 months in prison after pleading guilty to federal

racketeering Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. Originally and of ...

and

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...

charges. Montoya completed his sentence at a low-security prison in

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Montoya, Michael A. State treasurers of New Mexico New Mexico Democrats New Mexico politicians convicted of crimes University of Colorado Boulder alumni Living people People from Los Lunas, New Mexico 1952 births