The Arizona Treasurer’s Office has hired a former mutual fund manager to oversee investments for the state.

Richard R. Hinderlie, who managed the INVESCO U.S. Government Securities Fund for more than nine years at INVESCO’s Denver headquarters, has been named successor to Patrick B. Hammons.

Mr. Hammons was fired July 21 for “personnel issues,” said E. Blaine Vance, deputy state treasurer for administration and operations.

Mr. Vance declined to elaborate on any of the details behind Mr. Hammons’s departure, but the Treasurer’s Office had been aware since early this year that Mr. Hammons had been the subject of a six-figure settlement in a lawsuit in California and had been fined $5,000 and suspended for 45 days in 2000 for failing to disclose his involvement in the suit to the National Association of Securities Dealers, which licenses investment professionals.

The lawsuit did not relate to Mr. Hammons’s duties as a stockbroker, but as a trustee of the Lenore Lum Trust. Several beneficiaries of the trust sued Mr. Hammons in 1994 for $500,000 for allegedly misusing funds. The lawsuit was settled in 1999 for about $285,000.

Mr. Hinderlie has been analyzing and trading investments since 1973. He joined INVESCO in 1993, and took over management of the U.S. Government Securities Fund in 1994. Mr. Hinderlie left INVESCO in July of this year

Tony Malaj, chief of staff for the Treasurer’s Office, said Sept. 25 that Mr. Hinderlie’s knowledge of debt securities, ranging from government and corporate bonds to repurchase agreements, “is really amazing.”

The Treasurer’s Office not only manages investment of the state’s money but also more than $3 billion in investments for numerous local governments throughout Arizona. —