A federal grand jury said to be investigating former Gov. Bill Richardson is expected to meet again next week in Albuquerque.

After battling repeated scandals in the latter years of his eight-year tenure, the globe-trotting Richardson is back under the microscope.

This time, several news outlets report that the two-term Democratic governor and onetime Cabinet secretary for President Bill Clinton faces accusations that he raised $250,000 from supporters to quiet a woman who had threatened to file a sexual-harassment complaint.

While rumors about the investigation are rampant, people with knowledge of how it is progressing are steering clear of making public pronouncements, meaning that no one is talking publicly about the inquiry.

Defense lawyers representing those believed to have already testified before a federal grand jury in Albuquerque didn't return phone calls from The New Mexican. Neither did attorneys or a spokesperson for Richardson.

And a spokeswoman for Kenneth Gonzales, the U.S. attorney for New Mexico, said last week that she could "neither confirm nor deny the existence of any grand jury investigation into alleged criminal conduct."

According to several news reports, at the core of the investigation are possible violations of federal campaign-finance laws.

The Albuquerque Journal was the first to report on the investigation, publishing a story that said if money from Richardson's supporters was used to help keep a woman quiet, the investigation "would seek to determine who raised it, how it was tied to the Richardson campaign and how it was paid to the woman."

The Journal and The New York Times, which ran its own story last week, also suggested that several people with links to Richardson had testified before a grand jury in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

According to the Journal, they include campaign contributors with varying degrees of business with the state during the Richardson administrations as well as officials involved with his bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.

Multiple sources claiming to have knowledge of the investigation confirmed a list of people said to have testified or who have been called to testify before the federal grand jury. But neither the individuals nor their attorneys returned phone calls.

A former member of the Richardson administration was quoted by the Times as confirming that a sexual-harassment claim was made against Richardson around 2007 by a woman connected to state government and that a settlement was discussed with one of the former governor's personal lawyers.

An unnamed onetime adviser to the governor who also spoke to the Times said a government employee complained privately in 2007 that she had felt pressure to have a sexual relationship with Richardson.

Richardson's lawyers entered into a confidential settlement with the woman for $250,000, the former adviser was quoted by the Times as saying.

A person familiar with but not connected to the investigation said the money was believed to have been wired to the woman's lawyer from a bank in Mexico, the Times also reported.

Richardson has been the subject of federal investigations before. He withdrew as President Barack Obama's commerce secretary nominee in January 2009, citing a federal investigation into how a California company had won New Mexico state contracts. The inquiry didn't result in the filing of any criminal charges, but the federal prosecutor in the case issued a letter saying that "pressure from the governor's office resulted in the corruption of the procurement process."

Soon afterward, Richardson's administration came under scrutiny over how the state's investments were made.

The state's former investment adviser, Saul Meyer, pleaded guilty to securities fraud in New York in the fall of 2009 and admitted in his pleadings that on numerous occasions, contrary to his fiduciary duty to the state, his company had "recommended proposed investments that were pushed on him by politically connected individuals in New Mexico."

Earlier this year, the State Investment Council filed lawsuits alleging that investment deals worth hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars were made to reward political contributors to and fundraisers for Richardson.

Contact Trip Jennings at 986-3050 or at tjennings@sfnewmexican.com.