Does Mitt Romney Have an In-Law Problem?

Source: ABC News

Mitt Romney's rise in business and politics has served as a marketing bonanza for two of his wife's closest relatives, both Utah-based businessmen who have benefited from, and are said to have traded on, their connection to the presidential candidate even as they suffered a succession of embarrassing business and legal difficulties.

Ann Romney's brother Roderick Davies, who filed for bankruptcy in 2010, and nephew Ryan Davies, who oversaw a now-bankrupt green energy venture, have both been out on the campaign trail to offer support for Romney. But back in Utah, the two men have left a trail of unhappy business partners, a number of whom spoke with ABC News to express concern about how the two might try and capitalize on a Romney presidency.

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The two have been said to tout their family connections when courting business partners – Neff noted that Ryan Davies once told him a potential investor was welcome to stay at Mitt Romney's Park City mansion (though she never did) when she traveled to Utah for the Sundance Film Festival. Davies also told potential clients in a public presentation that Romney's son Josh was a vice president of his Utah clean energy company, Renewable Energy Development Company (REDCO).

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Davies also touted Josh Romney's purported involvement in an August 17, 2009 email to investors, obtained by ABC News, saying Romney would be the company's "business development advisor." Andy Neff, a boyhood friend of Davies, said he put $150,000 of his own money into REDCO with the impression that Mitt Romney himself might be looking over Davies's shoulder. Neff also said he persuaded one of his biggest clients to invest far more than $600,000, saying that he didn't think "my client would have even spoken to him if he wasn't associated with Mitt Romney."

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Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/mitt-romney-law-problem/story?id=17506248#.UIC4X2fp9BU