Catalina Vasquez Villalpando

Catalina "Cathi" Vásquez Villalpando (born April 1, 1940) is the 39th Treasurer of the United States who served from December 11, 1989, to January 20, 1993 under President George H. W. Bush and is the only U.S. Treasurer ever to be sent to prison. She had held minor positions under President Ronald Reagan and had chaired the Republican National Hispanic Assembly. In 1994, Villalpando was found guilty of obstruction of justice and tax evasion.

Early life and education Villalpando was born Catalina Vásquez to a poor family in San Marcos, Texas, one of four girls and two boys. Villalpando's father, a lifelong Democrat and migrant worker, used to take her and her siblings out into the fields so they would know what it was like to pick crops for a living.

After attending parochial school, Villalpando graduated from San Marcos High School. She subsequently went to work at a jewelry store and as a secretary at Southwest Texas State College, where she attended part-time. She did not complete her studies at Southwest, but at the suggestion of her father enrolled at the University of Texas College of Business Administration.

Villalpando's association with Republican Party politics began at this time when she took a secretarial position with the Texas Republican Party in Austin, Texas while attending business school.

Career In 1969, Villalpando became an assistant to the local director of the Community Service Administration where she dealt with minority and business issues. Villalpando eventually became director and, later, worked for the now defunct Office of Economic Opportunity.

By the late 1970s, Villalpando was working for the Commerce Department's Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) in Texas. In 1979, Villalpando returned to the private sector taking up the position of vice president for the Mid-South Oil Company. She also organized her own consulting firm, V. P. Promotions, providing public relations to minority-owned savings and loan institutions under a federal contract. After Ronald Reagan secured the GOP nomination, she enthusiastically volunteered in the Reagan-Bush campaign effort in Texas. She was rewarded with a position as staff assistant in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel when Reagan took up office in 1981. Later that year, she returned to Texas where she served as the voter groups coordinator for the TRP. Villalpando's political profile also rose considerably when her skills and ethnicity were utilized in outreach efforts to attract Hispanics to the Republican Party.

Private sector work After two years, Villalpando left government service again and, in August 1985, took up the position of senior vice president – as well as partner and large shareholder – at Communications International, Inc. (CII), a Norcross, Georgia-based telecommunications firm. CII was run by its founder, Joseph Profit, a former Atlanta Falcons running back and popular businessman in Georgia who had served in various appointed capacities in the Reagan Administration and, later, the first Bush Administration. Villalpando was one of several high-profile Republicans that Profit brought on board who helped the company garner millions in federal contracts.

Despite her leaving government service during this time, Villalpando's political involvement, especially in regards to bringing more Hispanics into the Republican Party, did not cease.

In 1987, Villalpando became the national chair for the Republican National Hispanic Assembly (RNHA). At the time, the RNHA was the auxiliary of the Republican National Committee responsible for Hispanic outreach and advocacy on behalf of the Party. The effort to get her elected as the group's leader came at a time when the presidential campaigns of then Vice President Bush and Senate Minority Leader Robert Dole were engaged in a particularly nasty competition to win the support of Hispanic Republicans for the 1988 election cycle. Villalpando had developed a special talent for attracting Hispanics to the Party and, as a Bush ally, was expected to swing the support of the Assembly to his run for the GOP nod.

MBDA investigation That same year, Villalpando's assumption of the RNHA leadership post came under scrutiny by the Commerce Department's inspector general. An unrelated investigation was already underway looking into allegations that MBDA director James Richardson Gonzalez and Ernest Olivas, Jr., an MBDA employee, had been using their positions to drum up support for Bush's campaign. The probe revealed that Olivas, a friend of Villalpando when the two were on staff together in the Reagan White House where he was the speech-writer for the vice president, had also been soliciting prominent Hispanic Republicans to support her bid for the RNHA chairmanship.

RNHA co-founder Francisco Vega was one of those contacted and who confirmed to investigators that Olivas had called him from his government office while on work time, a potential violation of the Hatch Act.

U.S. Treasurer On April 4, 1989, President Bush nominated Villalpando to be Treasurer of the United States. She was confirmed by the United States Senate on November 20, 1989, The same year, Villalpando initiated a special program to raise $37 million by selling commemorative coins honoring Mount Rushmore. Half of the money raised would go toward restoration of the monument – the cost of which was estimated at $40 million – and half to pay into the national debt.

A number of $1 1988 Series banknotes have been found with Catalina Villalpando's courtesy autograph, which adds value for numismatists.

Clinton comments In August 1992, Villalpando became embroiled in controversy over comments made by her and Commerce Secretary and Bush campaign manager Robert Mosbacher. The comments concerned ongoing sex scandals and rumors surrounding Arkansas Governor and Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton and former San Antonio mayor Henry Cisneros. Visiting the New Jersey delegation at the 1992 Republican National Convention, Villalpando reportedly said to the delegates, "Can you imagine two skirt-chasers campaigning together?" She also questioned Clinton's qualifications.

Some members of the delegation were not pleased with the comments, including former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean, who called the remarks "totally unnecessary." Although both Bush and Villalpando issued apologies, Clinton campaign spokesman George Stephanopoulos called on the president to dismiss both officials.

Tax/CII scandal Investigation While still enveloped in the controversy surrounding her Clinton and Cisneros comments, Villalpando became the central figure in a criminal probe launched by the Department of Justice. The investigation initially focused on allegations that Villalpando accepted favors and other gratuities from CII while in office in violation of federal law. However, it also incorporated an array of potential charges including "bribery, conspiracy to defraud the government, making false or fraudulent claims, racketeering, making false statements to federal agents and fraud by wire, radio or television."

News of the investigation broke on October 29, the day after FBI agents raided several buildings and residences in Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Georgia. Among these were the homes of Villalpando and Olivas and the offices of CII in Norcross where boxes of documents were seized. The Treasury Department immediately placed Villalpando on leave. Olivas, who was already on leave from CII to act as director of Hispanic outreach for the Bush-Quayle re-election team, quit the campaign.

Conviction The investigation did not support charges of influence-peddling on Villalpando's part. Instead, the probe began to intersect with another criminal investigation ongoing within the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) over fraud and the improper awarding of federal contracts during the Reagan administration. In May 1992, Villalpando was ordered to testify before a grand jury as well as produce certain documents related to that case involving HUD official Deborah Gore Dean. Villalpando's own investigation began to turn toward her failure to reveal compensation from CII and failure to pay appropriate taxes. The following year, she was also accused of obstruction of justice by lying to investigators as well as ordering the destruction of subpoenaed documents. Prosecutors had unsuccessfully sought a harsher penalty.

Post-Treasurer years In 2003, she appeared on a list produced by the D.C. government of notorious tax scofflaws. According to this report, the former treasurer owed the district government $168,417.72 in back taxes.

Personal life Villalpando married her high school sweetheart in 1970. The marriage produced one son and ended in divorce a few years later.