Last Call

The Boston Globe drops yet another expose' on Mitt Romney:  The Bain Capital Years as the paper reports Romney was not only firmly in charge of the company during the 1999-2002 period, but used the fact he was the man in charge as leverage to negotiate a severance package from the company.  Because, you know, he was still in charge.

Interviews with a half-dozen of Romney’s former partners and associates, as well as public records, show that he was not merely an absentee owner during this period. He signed dozens of company documents, including filings with regulators on a vast array of Bain’s investment entities. And he drove the complex negotiations over his own large severance package, a deal that was critical to the firm’s future without him, according to his former associates.

Indeed, by remaining CEO and sole shareholder, Romney held on to his leverage in the talks that resulted in his generous 10-year retirement package, according to former associates.

“The elephant in the room was not whether Mitt was involved in investment decisions but Mitt’s retention of control of the firm and therefore his ability to extract a huge economic benefit by delaying his giving up of that control,” said one former associate, who, like some other Romney associates, spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for the company.

So yes, he was clearly in charge of the company at the time it made money for its sole shareholder off of sending tens of thousands of jobs to China, Malaysia and Singapore.  And yes, it was all about making Mitt Romney fat, fat loot.

Romney had a lot at stake because Bain had become hugely valuable under his leadership. Romney established Bain Capital in 1984, and in the 15 years that followed, the company had invested $260 million in its 10 largest deals (out of more than 100 during that period) and had reaped a nearly $3 billion return.

On one deal alone, involving an Italian phone directory company, Bain had invested $51 million and reaped more than $1 billion, with Romney’s personal profit being as much as $40 million, according to a former partner. Bain’s funds nearly doubled investors’ money annually during Romney’s tenure.

Romney had expected to remain at Bain Capital for years. He initially rejected the idea of running the Olympics, recounting in his memoir, “Turnaround,” that “after fifteen years of effort, Bain Capital had become extraordinarily lucrative. How could I walk away from the golden goose, especially now that it was laying even more golden eggs?” To do so, Romney wrote, meant “I would walk away from my leadership at Bain Capital at the height of its profitability.

 

Filthy lucre at the expense of US jobs.  That's how Romney made his money in the private sector.

 

Imagine what he'll do as President.