Paper probe picks up punch

Jeff German, Las Vegas Sun

Friday, April 13, 2007 | 7:10 a.m.

The Nevada Department of Public Safety has joined an investigation into the possible destruction of public documents in the state treasurer's office to determine whether any criminal wrongdoing occurred.

Treasurer Kate Marshall, a Democrat, sought the probe last month after complaining to Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto that records may have been purged from the office in the waning days of the administration of her Republican predecessor, Brian Krolicki.

Marshall told Cortez Masto that her efforts to resolve discrepancies in the $3 billion Nevada College Savings Plan were being hampered by a "lack of historical information and documents."

Former Krolicki employees, Marshall said, reported that they were directed to destroy documents as part of the transition to the new treasurer "without any regard to the record retention laws."

Marshall's chief of staff, Renee Parker, said this week that the Department of Public Safety told her that the attorney general's office requested the department's participation in the investigation. The department has an investigations division that routinely looks into criminal allegations involving state officials.

"They have interviewed some of our employees, and we have been cooperating with them ," Parker said.

Public Safety Capt. Karen Lorenzo declined to comment and referred a call to Conrad Hafen, chief of the attorney general's criminal division and political corruption unit. Hafen also declined to comment.

Unlawful destruction of state records is a felony with a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Krolicki, now Nevada's lieutenant governor, said Thursday he had not heard that Public Safety was involved in the investigation.

He reiterated his contention that nothing improper occurred during his eight-year tenure as treasurer.

"I welcome the scrutiny," he said. "I welcome the investigation because my office did it right, and we did it by the book."

But Marshall told Cortez Masto in a letter last month that when she took over, "there were absolutely no files or documents" in the treasurer's office and the office of the chief of staff.

There also were no e-mails in the office beyond last October, when the office under Krolicki switched to a new e-mail system used by other state agencies, she said. The old file server, Marshall added, was apparently "purged and erased" and used for other programs.

Marshall said Krolicki's actions may have compromised the operations of the treasurer's office.

"If any records or documents are found missing in the future," she wrote, "I can only surmise that they may have been contained in the files or e-mails that were either removed from this office or destroyed."

Last month legislative auditors began an audit into possible irregularities in Nevada's college savings fund after Marshall told lawmakers that $3.4 million of almost $5 million in investment fees received by the state last year may have been improperly diverted toward marketing and legal expenses under Krolicki.

That audit is expected to be completed within several weeks.