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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOBAMA CAMP: 'PROVE IT!'
Prove It: Obama Campaign Presses Romney For Bain Departure DetailsThe Obama campaign is challenging Mitt Romney to release more information about his taxes and time at Bain Capital in order to put to bed questions raised by SEC filings regarding his role at the company. If the SEC filings arent accurate, then prove it, Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter told reporters on Thursday. If he wasnt investing millions of dollars in shell corporations, tax havens, Swiss bank accounts overseas to gain a tax advantage, then prove it. Prove it by releasing your tax returns. Romney said he left any managerial role at Bain Capital behind in February 1999, delegating all voting shares of stock to 26 managing directors and leaving day-to-day operations to focus on running the Olympics. But subsequent SEC filings list him as sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president. A 2001 SEC filing first reported by TPM lists his principal occupation as Managing Director of Bain Capital, Inc. and the Boston Globe reviewed additional filings containing similar claims.
Media fact-checkers have dismissed a number of previous Obama attacks on Bain Capital by noting that various companies where layoffs or outsourcing occurred under Bain were acquired after 1999, thereby absolving Romney of responsibility. The Obama campaign claims that Romneys presence in numerous SEC filings related to Bain and affiliated companies should push the window to 2001 and force a re-evaluation. Both the Washington Posts blogger The Fact Checker and FactCheck.org said they were unmoved by the latest reports. The Post noted that there are no contemporary reports of Romney being involved with major company decisions during the period in question, despite being listed as owner, sole stockholder, CEO and managing director.
Cutter said Romney needs to show positive proof of his supposedly passive role, which was not borne out by his SEC filings. Romney actually has the ability to ask Bain to just release the minutes of meetings and other corporate records, Cutter said. Like his tax returns, hes in a position to make sure theyre available for all of us to see. Cutter even suggested there were possible criminal implications for not disclosing the details of Romneys departure from Bain. Either Mitt Romney, through his own words and his own signature, was misrepresenting his position at Bain to the SEC, which is a felony, or he was misrepresenting his position at Bain to the American people to avoid responsibility for some of the consequences of his investments, she said on the call.
The Romney campaign told TPM that his initial departure in 1999 was a quickly enacted leave of absence to run the Olympics and the company only officially transferred his voting stock to Bains managing directors in August 2001. The campaign also noted that Romneys 2002 retirement package, which was calculated based on his 1999 departure, would have been more generous if Romney had claimed he had continued working in some capacity in the intervening years. Romney was, however, running for governor at the time, where Bains investments became a major issue in the campaign. Romney surrogate John Sununu said in a statement that Romney would have been unable to handle both a role at Bain and his outside work at the same time. The Obama campaign must think Mitt Romney is Superman, Sununu said. He was, in reality, rescuing the Olympics by working in Utah 24/7 for the years the Obama campaign also alleges he was running Bain Capital. Even though the Obama campaign may be wrong about his involvement in Bain Capital, it shows that even they can admit Mitt Romney is a great leader.
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/07/obama-bain-romney-prove-it.php?ref=fpa
democrat_patriot
(2,774 posts)Romney either lied about his time there, or he defrauded investors via fake SEC filings.
Which one John?
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)Don't the papers reflect that he was not only the CEO and Chairman of the Board, but also the sole investor.
At best, filing papers that state that could be misleading to those doing business with Bain.
If Romney was not the CEO, Chairman of the Board and sole shareholder at Bain, they who was?
Segami
(14,923 posts)Bloomberg:
"...Bain, based in Boston, said in a statement today that it took a while to transfer ownership to Romneys successors due to the sudden nature of his decision to run the Olympics in Salt Lake City. Until the ownership situation was resolved, Romney continued to be listed as the sole stockholder and in various executive positions in Securities and Exchange Commission filings, the company said.
Mitt Romney left Bain Capital in February 1999 to run the Olympics and has had absolutely no involvement with the management or investment activities of the firm or with any of its portfolio companies since the day of his departure, the company said...."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-12/bain-says-romney-kept-ownership-after-leaving-in-1999.html
.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)Normally, we wouldn't ask that. But under these circumstances -- where he was listed on at least some of the SEC filings as the sole owner, the sole stockholder, CEO and Chairman of the Board and President (the whole deal), I think we need to ask and to be told -- just for the sake of clarity. When did Bain register that it had new ownership.
Politicalboi
(15,189 posts)Rmoney can't walk and chew gum at the same time?
"Romney surrogate John Sununu said in a statement that Romney would have been unable to handle both a role at Bain and his outside work at the same time".
nc4bo
(17,651 posts)Tough, shouldn't lie.
AtomicKitten
(46,585 posts)Segami
(14,923 posts)aint_no_life_nowhere
(21,925 posts)enacting legislation for a Romney lying jar. Mitt has to kick in a crisp $100 bill every time he lies.
Segami
(14,923 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)There is nothing lower than a GOP operative, and this one is but step above Lee Atwater. All slime, all the time.
silverweb
(16,402 posts)[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]So let me get this straight:
(1) You want us to accept that rMoney couldn't handle Bain and his "outside work" at the same time.
~AND~
(2) At the same time, you expect us to believe that if he were President of the United States, he'd be perfectly capable of handling foreign and domestic affairs at the same time.
Thanks, Sununu, for another insight into the perpetually underwhelming Mittster!
ThoughtCriminal
(14,046 posts)in Mitt's tax returns. Even if it would put the Bain questions aside, there is no way the campaign could survive public disclosure.
progressivebydesign
(19,458 posts)..they're kind of important, and not filled out flippantly. Did he think no one would notice??
rbixby
(1,140 posts)NT
Segami
(14,923 posts)By not releasing his tax returns, unanswered questions will continue to compound speculation into what exactly Romney is hiding in his tax returns.
groundloop
(11,514 posts)I don't know the answer to this, but I could envision some repub one day giving a made-up tax return to the press and if outed claiming it's his first amendment right to lie.
mopinko
(70,023 posts)dunno why it would be illegal.
jaysunb
(11,856 posts)Keep it up,team Obama....this is the way they play, it's what they don't expect from Democrats.