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David Corn’s Latest: Romney Lied in his Most Recent Financial Disclosure

Posted: July 13, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, open thread, U.S. Politics | Tags: , , , , , |8 Comments

At Mother Jones, Corn writes:

The ongoing hullabaloo over the timing of Mitt Romney’s exit from Bain has become a bit absurd. The Romney camp and Bain insist that Romney fully retired in February 1999 from the private equity firm he founded and owned—even though in the past he and Bain have described his departure as a part-time leave—and evidence has emerged (including Securities and Exchange documents I first reported) showing that Romney was involved to some extent in Bain as late as 2002, while he continued to maintain his ownership of the firm and its various entities. Romney has been working hard to avoid being held responsible for any post-February 1999 Bain deals that might have resulted in bankruptcies or outsourcing. But there is another reason for the Romney crew to worry about this controversy: Romney may have made a false statement on a federal financial disclosure form, and doing so is a felony punishable by up to one year of imprisonment and a $50,000 fine.

Like all presidential candidates, Romney has to submit a financial disclosure statement to the Office of Government Ethics. He filed his most recent one last month, and the disclosure contains a very clearly stated footnote:

Mr. Romney retired from Bain Capital on February 11, 1999 to head the Salt Lake [Olympics] Organizing Committee. Since February 11, 1999, Mr. Romney has not had any active role with any Bain Capital entity and has not been involved in the operations of any Bain Capital entity in any way.

There’s no ambiguity there: not involved in Bain operations in any way. But that’s not true.

At the link, Corn enumerates many SEC filings that put the lie to Romney’s statement to the Office of Government Ethics. In addition, Corn blasts Glenn Kessler, “fact-checker” for the WaPo for his sycophantic defenses of Romney’s lies and half-truths. Read the whole thing at the link.

Also at Mother Jones, Adam Serwer has compiled a list of “everything we know so far about Romney and Bain.”

Please use this as an open thread. JJ will have a cartoon post later on.

8 Comments on “David Corn’s Latest: Romney Lied in his Most Recent Financial Disclosure”

  1. bostonboomer says:
    July 13, 2012 at 7:11 pm

    AP story published in the Boston Herald:

    Romney acknowledged that he would have benefitted financially from Bain’s operations even after he left management of the firm to others. That could open him up to criticism that he gained from investment in companies that sent jobs overseas.

    “All of the investors participate in the success or failure of various investments, just like you do as a shareholder of an enterprise,” Romney said.

    One Romney aide said earlier in the week that any suggestion that Romney had shipped jobs overseas was a lie, and the campaign has said repeatedly the break with the private equity firm came in 1999.

    Yet documents surfaced for the second straight day that seemed to indicate Romney played an active management role in Bain Capital after that date, when he and company officials say he left the firm to run the Olympic.

    Annual reports filed by Bain Capital with the state of Massachusetts said he had a role in the firm as late as 2001. The company’s 2002 report did not list Romney among the firm’s managing partners, suggesting he was no longer with Bain by that point.

  2. bostonboomer says:
    July 13, 2012 at 7:39 pm

    Romney announced today that he will appoint a pro-life VP. So the Condi story is just a distraction.

    Heard on the Ed Show.

  3. bostonboomer says:
    July 13, 2012 at 8:03 pm

    Rachel started her show by playing Romney’s multiple denials that he was involved in Bain after 1999. She said she was a little bummed that he talked to everyone but her.

  4. bostonboomer says:
    July 13, 2012 at 8:07 pm

    More revelations from Current TV.

    Jennifer Granholm revealed new evidence that Mitt Romney actually had a say in what the company he owned did.

    “We have uncovered documents that reveal he was actively involved in Bain Capital businesses, even though he claimed he retired from the private equity company in 1999,” Gov. Granholm told viewers Thursday night. “Current TV has learned that Mitt Romney was the 100% stakeholder in 11 Bain Capital entities later than 1999. Romney signed, in 2003, a Massachusetts State Ethics Commission document stating he held several ‘executive’ positions at Bain Capital and its affiliates.”

    What makes this filing different than the others uncovered is that, according to Gov. Granholm, “This Massachusetts Ethics Commission filing distinguishes between the Bain companies in which he played an active role, and others where he had ‘no active role.’”

    The Romney campaign’s entire defense against the outsourcing claim rests on their claim, dutifully repeated and defended with lawyerly vigor by the website FactCheck.org, that “Since February 11, 1999, Mr. Romney has not had any active role with any Bain Capital entity and has not been involved in the operations of any Bain Capital entity in any way.”

    How big the pile of contradictory documents has to get before FactCheck.org resumes doing its job is anybody’s guess, but the mainstream media needs, at this point, to emerge from the weeds and hold Mitt Romney accountable for what these documents prove beyond any doubt. Whether he was involved in day-to-day operations, or in specific deals, these documents prove that Mitt Romney was responsible for everything Bain Capital did from 1999 until at least 2002.

  5. dakinikat says:
    July 13, 2012 at 10:54 pm

    http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/07/13/516951/romney-interview-directly-contradicts-his-previous-statements-about-bain-tenure/

    Mitt Romney told CBS News‘s Jan Crawford Friday evening that he did not attend Bain Capital meetings after he left the company in February of 1999 to run the Winter Olympics. But this answer appears to contradict sworn testimony he delivered in 2002 “as part of a hearing to determine whether he had sufficient residency status in Massachusetts to run for governor”:

    – 2002: “[T]here were a number of social trips and business trips that brought me back to Massachusetts, board meetings, Thanksgiving and so forth.”

    – 2012: “I was in Salt Lake City for three straight years. I don’t recall even coming back once to go to a Bain or management meeting. We were, I was out there running the Olympics and it was a full time job, I can tell you that.”

    “Jan, I had no involvement with the management of Bain Capital after 1999,” Romney insisted on Friday.

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