The REAL real reason Romney MUST say he left Bain in February 1999

[ProSense]

The REAL real reason Romney MUST say he left Bain in February 1999

by MKSinSA

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.

Why? According to a February 11, 1999, AP article by Kirsten Moulton: (h/t Shuksan Tahoma)

Romney will have to sever ties with any companies that do business with the games. Bain Capital has ownership stakes in many companies and Romney serves on various corporate boards.

If Romney does not say he was completely gone from Bain by Feb. 11, then he breached his Olympic contract.

It was also vitally important for him to protect his Olympic legacy, considering he was parachuted in to fight corruption in the organization. Bringing a scandal of his own would have put him in the record books right alongside the other fired officials.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/14/1110033/-The-REAL-real-reason-Romney-MUST-say-he-left-Bain-in-February-1999

Romneyland responds: 'This is nothing more than a quirk in the law'
http://upload.democraticunderground.com/1002935930

If Romney Wasn't at Bain from 1999 to 2002, He Forgot to Tell the Business Press
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002948620

Mitt, meet EDGAR. Hammer, meet nail.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002949350

On edit: Seems all these reports contradict the disclosure mentioned in the DK diary.

Mitt has some explaining to do.

[BumRushDaShow]

1. Bwahh! Drip drip drip.

[progressivebydesign]

2. Thank you! Something had been bothering me about the Olympics/Bain connection..

and there it is. I had a feeling he as exploiting his Bain connections to look good for the Olympics, and it being in Utah and all.. ya know. Great find.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

3. Haha - circling the Bain

[amuse bouche]

12. lol

Let's hope

[WinstonSmith4740]

14. ROFLMAO!!

circling the Bain!!

FABULOUS!!

OK, I'll start the pool...when, and from whom, do we hear this on TV? I say with-in a week, and it'll be James Carville.

[spanone]

4. k&r...

[Rosa Luxemburg]

5. k&r

[Ruby the Liberal]

6. "Quirk in the law" = Willard wanted to get his own way.

Laws and regulations be damned.

Oddly, this might be enough to bring the teabaggers to his cause.

[Spazito]

7. Geez, Romney has tied himself up in so many knots with his lies...

he is just one big old pretzel and I love it!

[Voice for Peace]

8. ooooh.. corruption and graft in the olympics is the next chapter

Who got the sweetest contracts?

[Voice for Peace]

10. now I've got me thinking..

how did he happen to take charge of olympics?
whose idea was it?

was it a volunteer job?

who made money that year?

[dothemath]

16. great, great questions

The fun hasn't really started yet. I would not be surprised, as it appears you would not be also, to find Romney campaigned for the job of 'rescuing' the Salt Lake City Olympics - and while doing so, make a few bucks for himself and his friends. The Mormon Church wields a tremendous amount of power in Utah and could very well have been a player in that episode of Romney's life.

I hope opposition research democrats are really digging deep to find some connection that would blow Romney out of the water, and with him the repubs, and Obama informs Romney he would be well-advised to drop out of the race to 'spend more time with his family'. Romney could then ask his 'supporters' to throw their support to another candidate of Obamas choosing. Herman Cain would be the most entertaining, I think.

[KurtNYC]

18. the headline will be: Romney's 2002 Olympics "Fix" Aids Bain

He was brought in because of the bid scandal -- the local Salt Lake organizing committee gave sweet real estate deals and prostitutes to the IOOC and had to resign when it came out. Romney goes in to "fix" things and avoid any further scandal....

[Voice for Peace]

19. a bit from Wikipedia

Romney emerged as the public face of the Olympic effort, appearing in photographs, news stories and on Olympics pins.[119] Robert H. Garff, the chair of the organizing committee, later said that "It was obvious that he had an agenda larger than just the Olympics,"[119] and that Romney wanted to use the Olympics to propel himself into the national spotlight and a political career.[124][131]

Garff believed the initial budget shortfall was not as bad as Romney portrayed, given there were still three years to reorganize.[124] Utah Senator Bob Bennett said that much of the needed federal money was already in place and an analysis by The Boston Globe stated that the committee already had nearly $1 billion in committed revenues.[124]

Olympics critic Steve Pace, who led Utahns for Responsible Public Spending, thought Romney exaggerated the initial fiscal state in order to lay the groundwork for a well-publicized rescue.[131] Kenneth Bullock, another board member of the organizing committee and also head of the Utah League of Cities and Towns, often clashed with Romney at the time, and later said that Romney deserved some credit for the turnaround but not as much as he claimed:[119] Bullock said: "He tried very hard to build an image of himself as a savior, the great white hope. He was very good at characterizing and castigating people and putting himself on a pedestal."[124]

[KurtNYC]

21. the host side of the Olympics, Salt Lake, kicked out some in the scandal and

brought in Romney (or he went to them) but what about the side that took the bribes, the IOC?

As a result of the investigation, ten members of the IOC were expelled and another ten were sanctioned. This was the first expulsion or sanction for corruption in the more than a century the IOC had existed. Although nothing strictly illegal had been done,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Winter_Olympic_bid_scandal#Scandal

Nothing ILLEGAL ?? A blast from the past is in order:

More usually known as home of the Mormon religion, Salt Lake City has been reeling over the allegations that officials from its bid Committee used expensive gifts and sex to persuade the IOC to hold the Games in Utah. "Incentives", including college and athletic scholarships for relatives of IOC members, free medical insurance and other gifts are all said to have been used to try to clinch that particular race. On American TV, the Olympic corruption story has been running second only to the Clinton impeachment.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympic-games-murky-tale-of-presents-and-prostitutes-1075753.html

The IOC is rife with corruption and Romney got in bed with them so there may be something else back there. Whatever expelling they did was like giving speeding tickets at the Indy 500. 2002 was the year that a French judge took a bribe to throw the skating gold medal to the Russians over the Canadians.

[uponit7771]

9. I hope the Obama admin keeps this simple and ties it to tax returns...

[Solomon]

11. Damn. How much fucking money did he really make

for doing the Olympics? The thing that bites is he paid no damn taxes on the shit. Outsourced the uniforms then. I see he left his legacy with the current Olympics Committee

[Tx4obama]

13. Kick! n/t

[coalition_unwilling]

15. Deep Throat's first and most significant advice to

Woodward and Bernstein was 'Follow the money.'

That still holds obviously.

Follow

The

Money.

[starroute]

17. A little googling brings up the name of Stephen H. Coltrin

I've never heard of the guy before, but he's someone very close to Romney, who worked with him on the Olympics, and who has also had Bain as a client and boasts of his expertise in "multiple plant closings." If there was entanglement between Bain and the Olympics, it would have gone through guys like Coltrin.

http://www.coltrin.com/Coltrin-team.html

Stephen H. Coltrin, Chairman and CEO of Coltrin & Associates, has given strategic counsel and communications support to executives worldwide and been the driving force behind all Coltrin’s initiatives for over 30 years. His counsel has driven growth and revenue for companies including Nintendo, 3Com, Burger King, Salt Lake City Olympics, Smiths Detection, Bain Capital and others.


http://www.coltrin.com/SHC.html

Stephen H. Coltrin founded Coltrin & Associates, Inc. in 1982. Under his guidance, the firm has become recognized as a strategic public relations firm giving counsel to global brands. Among the firm’s most renown successes, was the dramatic turn around and successful conclusion of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.

His expertise in crisis communications impacts issues such as multiple plant closings, union strikes, labor disputes, energy disasters and more. . . .

Among his most recognized achievements is the work he has provided for Governor Mitt Romney, the Salt Lake Organizing Commitee, and the Truce Foundation of the United States. He has assisted with the promotion of Romney’s book, Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership and the Olympic Games.


http://www.emerson.edu/news-events/emerson-college-today/archives/2003?postingID=178

Governor Romney Attends Inaugural Hindery Media Ethics Lecture Given by Stephen Coltrin

10/09/2003

Those on hand for the inaugural event included Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who ran the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City prior to being elected governor. Coltrin and Romney worked together to turn around public opinion on the Olympic Games after the Organizing Committee for that event, prior to Romney's arrival, was beset with ethical scandals and a financial crisis.


(See also the discussion of Coltrin at an ex-Mormon discussion board. Opinion seems to be divided between whether he's a nice guy or an ass: http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,521947,522182)

[malaise]

20. Rinse, repeat, recycle