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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRomney: $98,000,000 stake in Mattel in 1999? He Announces Olympic sponsorship as stock crashes
by Shuksan Tahoma
SEC filings, press releases, and other contemporaneous documents released between 1997 and 1999 indicate that Mitt Romney may have parlayed a $23m investment and seat on the board of troubled software firm The Learning Company (TLC) into an ownership stake in Mattel, Inc. worth as much as $100,000,000 as of June, 1999.
On September 25 of that year, Romney, in his role as CEO of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Organizing Committee, stood before the world to announce that the SLOC had signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Mattel for the production of stuffed-animal representations of the Olympic mascots.
Romney made no mention of his personal ownership interest in Mattel. Less than two weeks later, Mattel made a bombshell announcement.
On October 4 Mattel disclosed that The Learning Company had incurred millions in product returns and bad debt write-offs and that the TLC division of Mattel would incur a $50-$100 million loss rather than the large profit forecast.
Mattel, whose stock had traded as high as $27.23 when the TLC merger was completed, at $24.14 on June 25 (the date upon which Romney's ownership is documented and worth estimated), closed at $11.69 on October 4.
CNBC would later label the Mattel/TLC merger as 'one of the five worst of all time.'
The market had discovered, and Mattel had admitted, that The Learning Company was essentially a worthless shell.
Mitt Romney, by virtue of his control of a seat on the TLC board, would have most certainly known this to be true.
Thus, and by virtue of his statement of 25 September, 1999, Mitt Romney exposes himself to the potential for very serious allegations of fraud, namely:
- That he used his position as CEO of the SLOC to influence the choice of Olympic sponsors and licensees.
- That he used his position as CEO of the SLOC to make public statements about the health of Mattel which he knew or should have known, to be materially false.
- That he used his position as CEO of the SLOC to influence the investment decisions of shareholders or potential shareholders of Mattel, or to influence the price of Mattel's stock, while failing to disclose his own material interest in Mattel.
- That he failed to disclose to the SLOC, to the USOC, and to the IOC, a clear conflict of interest with respect to his ownership status in Mattel.
The second is harder: Between June 22 1999, through September 25, and into October 4, what happened with Romney/Bain's (estimated) 4.1 million shares of Mattel? Did they sit on them, dump them, what? Is it possible to know? How much does it matter if the June 22 date can be validated?
Either this is some serious stuff, or I've managed to foolishly convince myself that it is. I've been looking at it since I started researching my previous diary: Mattel Toys, troubled firm partly owned by Bain, signs on as Olympics Sponsor, 9/25/1999. At the time, it looked like there could be some evidence of petty graft with respect to the stuffed animals. This could be magnitudes worse.
- more -
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/18/1111452/-Romney-98-000-000-stake-in-Mattel-in-1999-He-Announces-Olympic-sponsorship-as-stock-crashes
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spanone
(135,791 posts)drip, drip, drip
aquart
(69,014 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Is there one on being associated with hurting a company everyone grew up with?
Voice for Peace
(13,141 posts)bad bad bad mitt romney
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Is nothing sacred to his greed and need to destroy?
It's one thing to trash some podunck company nobody heard of but this is fucking with our childhood memories and our kid's future to enjoy the traditional toys we grew up with.
This is Barbie and Hot Wheels he had his Mitts on.
xxqqqzme
(14,887 posts)it's just good business".
Lord Beckett
Coyotl
(15,262 posts)Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)Wait Wut
(8,492 posts)...in his '10 tax returns? While this article doesn't give me the nails I need to crucify him further, it does make me reach for the hammer.
HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)The old pump and dump scam. Thats a huge case of stock fraud, and even if statute of limitations has expired its a whole lotta 'splaining to do.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)Is it just me, or would it seem to rational-minded folks that as the "Big Honcho" of the SLOC, the Mittster should have gone OUT of his way to avoid the reality of, and ANY possible taint of self-interest, possible double-dealing and conflicts of interest in his quest for sponsors and big bucks.
It's bad enough that he suckered the US Gov't to provide 1.5 BILLION in infrastructure underwriting and other enhancements that benefitted his Mormon buddies, but crafting sponsorship deals with Bain-owned entitles certainly SCREAMS of self-enrichment, and conflict of interest.
Where's the arms-length of these transactions?
Marriott? Staples? This thing STINKS of self-interest, and cronyism
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/1111452/46837940#c12
Initech
(100,038 posts)renate
(13,776 posts)nc4bo
(17,651 posts)The drips are turning into flows.
Rosa Luxemburg
(28,627 posts)Response to Rosa Luxemburg (Reply #10)
bupkus This message was self-deleted by its author.
Rosa Luxemburg
(28,627 posts)Raine
(30,540 posts)highplainsdem
(48,910 posts)Sienna86
(2,148 posts)28 USC 2462
Looks like five years after SEC discovers improper actions.
Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)Willard cares about Mitt (the Glove)
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)fortune lies a great crime.' (loose translation from memory)
Hope the Obama campaign starts dismantling Romney's tenure at the Olympic Committee.
sarcasmo
(23,968 posts)Jessy169
(602 posts)Investors and working employees lose big time, Romney walks off with millions. Same story, over and over.
This story has got to go public, if for no other reason that Romney used his position at the Olympics to give a huge amount of business to a company that he and Bain had a significant financial interest in. The Mitt has ZERO ethics when it comes to money. If he makes it to the oval office, there is no doubt but that he will use that office to enrich himself and his friends, at everybody else's expense. That is his modus operandi. That is how the snake named Mitt slithers through life.
Swede Atlanta
(3,596 posts)If even half of the allegations of "anomalies" have feet, this guy is a serious piece of slime. We know that most Republicans like slime so unfortunately they will suck it up and vote for him. But I think many Independents won't be able to hold their noses and vote for someone who, even if everything he did was legal, stinks.
alfredo
(60,071 posts)Look for the party elders to start "advising in public" if things get much worse.
It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out.
Whiskeytide
(4,459 posts)...WILL drop out? Has the Obama team been keeping the gloves on until after the convention for fear he will step aside and the ReBubba's will nominate a less vulnerable candidate or one more attractive to independents? That would help with their own base as well. I just keep smelling a rat.
alfredo
(60,071 posts)lonestarnot
(77,097 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)You don't have a stock drop by over half it's amount and completely recover.
What do you think the average Midwestern American is going to think when they hear that Mitt Romney caused the stock in the Barbie Doll to fall by more than half and made hundreds of millions doing it?
freshwest
(53,661 posts)lillypaddle
(9,580 posts)avaistheone1
(14,626 posts)!!!!!!
magic59
(429 posts)They get that way through deceit and trickery. They are also very greedy and selfish. We now know Mitt Romney has all of those traits.