*Mitt Romney Stayed at Bain 3 Years Longer Than He Stated*
Mitt Romney stayed at Bain 3 years longer than he stated
Firm’s 2002 filings identify him as CEO, though he said he left in 1999
By Callum Borchers and Christopher Rowland-July 12, 2012
Nine SEC filings submitted by four different business entities after February 1999 describe Romney as Bain boss.
Government documents filed by Mitt Romney and Bain Capital say Romney remained chief executive and chairman of the firm three years beyond the date he said he ceded control, even creating five new investment partnerships during that time.
Romney has said he left Bain in 1999 to lead the winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, ending his role in the company. But public Securities and Exchange Commission documents filed later by Bain Capital state he remained the firm’s “sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president.”
Stephanie Cutter:
“When Mitt Romney ran for governor and now as he’s running for president, he consistently claimed he could not be blamed for bankruptcies and layoffs from Bain investments after February 1999 because he departed for the Olympics. Now, we know that he wasn’t telling the truth. According to the Boston Globe, and official Bain filings to the SEC, Mitt Romney didn’t leave Bain until 2001. He continued as the firm’s president and CEO, remained on the payroll, and continuously signed government documents representing himself as the head of that firm.
This puts him at the center of responsibility for troubling investments involving outsourcing and bankruptcies. It also raises serious questions about why he misrepresented the date of his ‘departure,’ and whether he is concealing his tax returns because there is still more about this period and beyond that he doesn’t want people to know. It’s time for Mitt Romney to come clean so that the American people can make their own judgments about his record and his motivations.”
From David Corn of Mother Jones
EXCLUSIVE: Romney Invested Millions in Chinese Firm That Profited on US Outsourcing. The GOP candidate decries China poaching US jobs. But at Bain he held a large stake in a Chinese company that did just that.
Excerpt:
The SEC filings do not reveal how much Romney initially invested in Global-Tech (which is now known as Global-Tech Advanced Innovations). But Brookside first acquired 748,000 shares at a time when Global-Tech was mounting an IPO at $19 a share. If that was the purchase price Brookside paid, then Romney’s firm originally invested $14.2 million in the company.
At the time Romney was acquiring shares in Global-Tech, the firm publicly acknowledged that its strategy was to profit from prominent US companies outsourcing production abroad.
*Hat tip rikyrah*
Mediaite commenter on Romney’s “free stuff” bullshit:
The racist slander against African Americans as lazy opponents of the dilligent white citizen harkens back to Reconstruction and a simple minded resentment generated by black folk receiving only a tiny fraction of the support afforded whites. The right has employed this fetid distortion from the very moment that African Americans first earned citizenship and Romney himself continues the distortion… A personal recipient of far greater federal and state benefit than entire institutions serving black communities in need. Romney declares that black folks should move on down the road if they want “free” stuff. Meanwhile, his accountants innovate UBIT avoidance for pension monies raided and replaced by the common citizen of every stripe. Romney is a shame imposed upon the Republic by an ackward collection of broken clans clinging to a disgusting past. I feel the impulse to curse but will avoid it. The Romney position unchanged from this rotten example…
AND ROMNEY HE CLEARLY KNOWS WHAT’S GOING ON WITH HIS BLIND TRUST. SUCH A LIAR!
UPDATES AS PROMISED:
Blogs have been reporting on this, and what it means that Mitt Romney lied:
Mediaite: Fact Check: Boston Globe Reports Mitt Romney Was at Bain Until 2002: http://bit.ly/PP0pBI
AmericaBlog: Romney May Have Committed Felony Lying About Role With Bain: http://bit.ly/OA8xkA
Think Progress: Mitt Romney Stayed at Bain Capital Three Years Longer Than He Claims: http://bit.ly/PP0e9y
Salon.com: Romney’s Bain Lie: http://bit.ly/NoidAy
Agonist: Lying Liar Mitt Romney Lied About Bain Tenure: http://bit.ly/MkgcZ3
Jamison Foser: Did Romney Leave Bain in 1999? He Could Have Legal Problems
Either Way: http://bit.ly/POZZeC
Blue Mass Group: SEC Document Show Romney Ran Bain Until 2002, Not 1999: http://bit.ly/OcXKvE
Atlantic Wire: Why Romney’s Quit Date At Bain Matters: http://bit.ly/OA8lSD
Balloon Juice: Bainiac on the Floor: http://bit.ly/Mn4YiW
Jed Lewison: More Bain Pain for Mitt Romney: http://bit.ly/Noi3cr
Jed Lewison: Mitt Romney Sure Picked A Bad Day to Call the President A Liar: http://bit.ly/N9CJan
3 Chics Politico: Mitt Romney’s Big Bain Capital Lie: http://bit.ly/MmvA0R
Mother Jones: Romney’s Bain Story is Falling Apart: http://bit.ly/NBkB7r
Crooks and Liars: Romney’s Protests about Outsourcing Unravel: http://bit.ly/LLP0ma
Ben LaBolt-TRANSCRIPT:
LABOLT: Mitt Romney is holding himself to a double standard because he claims credit for jobs created by these companies that Bain acquired during his tenure – jobs that were created to date. But he won’t accept responsibility for transactions that he was involved with for companies that shipped jobs overseas and went bankrupt with workers losing their jobs and their pensions and their health care benefits. And so he’s furiously tried to extract himself from these three years – 1999 through 2001. Now, he was CEO, chairman of the board, sole owner and sole shareholder. We’re supposed to believe that he didn’t have any involvement with any of these companies? You know, a new report has emerged tonight in sworn testimony in 2002, Romney said that he left Salt Lake to travel back to Massachusetts to appear at board meetings. And so the suggestion that he’s not involved in any of this – that he’s legally responsible, but not personally responsible simply isn’t credible.
MITT ROMNEY = REGRESSIVE!
The Bain Of This Campaign, Ctd
So when exactly did Mitt Romney resign from Bain Capital? He has long said 1999 – which gets him off responsibility for some bad p.r. for Bain in the subsequent three years, especially on outsourcing and off-shoring. But the Boston Globe has several legal documents showing that Romney remained
chief executive and chairman of the firm three years beyond the date he said he ceded control, even creating five new investment partnerships during that time.
Romney has said he left Bain in 1999 to lead the winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, ending his role in the company. But public Securities and Exchange Commission documents filed later by Bain Capital state he remained the firm’s “sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president.”
Also, a Massachusetts financial disclosure form Romney filed in 2003 states that he still owned 100 percent of Bain Capital in 2002. And Romney’s state financial disclosure forms indicate he earned at least $100,000 as a Bain “executive” in 2001 and 2002, separate from investment earnings.
Maybe this is a technical snafu caused by elaborate federal and state legal technicalities. But who gets paid $100,000 a year for two years for work as an executive in a company he has already quit?
http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/07/the-bain-o.html
One More Big Lie for Romney
by BooMan
Thu Jul 12th, 2012 at 10:28:34 AM EST
As I understood it, Mitt Romney left his job at Bain Capital in February 1999 in order to take over the planning and management of the 2002 Winter Olympics that were to take place in Utah. He made a big deal about not accepting any salary for his efforts. And he used the success of the Winter Olympics as a springboard to launch his political career in Massachusetts, winning the governorship that same fall. It’s a nice story, but it isn’t entirely true.
While the truth isn’t entirely clear, Romney didn’t actually resign from Bain Capital. He remained the “sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president” until 2002. The Boston Globe has unearthed numerous documents that prove this. In addition, they discovered that Mitt Romney testified before the Massachusetts Ballot Law Commission in 2002 that he had merely taken a leave of absence from Bain Capital.
During the four years in question, Romney received a salary of $100,000 in addition to all his investment income from Bain.
Why does any of this matter? Because Romney has been defending himself against layoffs Bain Capital made in the 1999-2002 period by saying that he had left the company and had no responsibility for those decisions. He made that argument in the governor’s race in 2002, in his presidential bid in 2008, and during the current contest in 2011-12. But, at best, he was taking a paid leave of absence.
Moreover, throughout that entire period of time, Bain Capital was making representations that Romney was still their CEO, which could constitute fraud if investors were misled into thinking that Romney would be handling their money.
So, on the one hand, maybe Romney has been lying about having no control of Bain’s decisions in 1999-2002. On the other hand, maybe he and Bain were defrauding investors during that time period. Which is it?
Even if we believe Romney, it must be nice to get paid a hundred grand a year to do nothing. But who would believe that Romney would exercise no control over a company for four years while remaining the sole stockholder?
Anyone?
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/7/12/102834/409
A Bain Capital ‘game changer’
By Steve Benen
Thu Jul 12, 2012 11:09 AM EDT.
The Romney campaign has truly awful timing. After weeks of the Obama campaign undermining Mitt Romney’s standing with ads attacking the Republican’s controversial private-sector background, Romney punched back hard this morning with a new ad that effectively (and ironically) accuses the president of being a big liar.
The strategy was simple: the whole day was supposed to be about Romney’s claim that the president is the lyingest liar who’s ever lied. Instead, the ad was released the same day as a new Boston Globe bombshell that catches Romney lying about his Bain background.
As we discussed yesterday, reporting from Mother Jones and TPM got this ball rolling, but it’s the Globe piece that’s being billed as “a potential game changer.”
Government documents filed by Mitt Romney and Bain Capital say Romney remained chief executive and chairman of the firm three years beyond the date he said he ceded control, even creating five new investment partnerships during that time.
Romney has said he left Bain in 1999 to lead the winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, ending his role in the company. But public Securities and Exchange Commission documents filed later by Bain Capital state he remained the firm’s “sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president.”
Also, a Massachusetts financial disclosure form Romney filed in 2003 states that he still owned 100 percent of Bain Capital in 2002. And Romney’s state financial disclosure forms indicate he earned at least $100,000 as a Bain “executive” in 2001 and 2002, separate from investment earnings.
Perhaps the most brutal element of the article comes towards the end: an unnamed Romney campaign official acknowledged that Romney’s claims “do not square with common sense” given the SEC filings. Ouch.
To put it mildly, this has the potential to do some very serious damage to Romney’s candidacy.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/12/12703193-a-bain-capital-game-changer?lite
It’s fairly easy to research who owns (owned) Bain Capital whenand where. You know those pesky lil details can be a mutha.
https://delecorp.delaware.gov/tin/GINameSearch.jsp
Buyout Profits Keep Flowing To Romney
Almost 13 years ago, Mitt Romney left Bain Capital, the successful private equity firm he had helped start, and moved to Utah to rescue the Salt Lake City Olympic Games and begin a second career in public life.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/us/politics/retirement-deal-keeps-bain-money-flowing-to-romney.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all