CRIMINAL VOTER FRAUD, or CRIMINAL TAX FRAUD from the CRIMINAL MEDICARE FRAUD GUY?
It is not about VOTER FRAUD, where Romney is registered to vote, it is about TAX FRAUD. Massachusetts has a high personal income tax, and New Hampshire has none. Romney is registered to vote in Massachusetts, so where did he pay his state taxes for two years? This is a man who directed Damon Clinical Laboratories during the time when it racked up $35,000,000 in CRIMINAL FINES for MEDICARE FRAUD, plus subsequently had to make $87,000,000 in restitution for fraudulent billing. He was previously investigated for voter fraud about paying state (resident) taxes in Utah instead of Massachusetts when he was running the winter Olympics, but skated by paying late fees to Massachusetts and saying "oops". Don't let this guy pay late fees and be a presidential candidate -- he has a pattern of fraud in his history. Make him show his state tax payments that match his voter registration address. Make him pay with PRISON time if he violated laws. Either it is CRIMINAL VOTER FRAUD, or CRIMINAL TAX FRAUD, or neither. Make him show the paperwork NOW, before he skates away with late fees.
http://bachmann-blowhard.blogspot.com/
http://mitt-romney-kills-jobs.blogspot.com/
http://rick-perry-hate-god.blogspot.com/
Friday, June 17, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Mitt Romney Medicare Fraud
Mitt Romney's 'Jobs Record' Is A Sham
June 02, 2011 9:02 am ET
ROMNEY PROFITED ON FIRM LATER TIED TO FRAUD DAMON CORP. FINED AFTER SALE BY BAIN
Corning Will Plead Guilty to Medicare Fraud
The Government said the settlement covered ''literally millions of fraudulent claims'' at Damon Clinical Laboratories Inc., which Corning acquired in 1993. Corning said the claims involved marketing and billing practices at the laboratories before Corning acquired them.
Like a number of other laboratory companies, Damon admitted to billing Federal Government agencies for blood tests that were not considered medically necessary but were performed along with legitimate tests requested by physicians. The United States Attorney's office in Boston said Damon, formerly based in Needham, Mass., had agreed to plead guilty to charges of conspiring to defraud the Federal Health Care Financing Administration. Damon agreed to pay a criminal fine of $35.3 million and to pay back $83.7 million to Federal health programs.
Oct. 9, 1996 -- Damon Clinical Laboratories Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Corning Inc., has agreed to pay $119 million in criminal and civil fines to settle a case involving two whistleblower lawsuits and criminal charges. The whistleblowers and the government charged that the company had submitted false claims to Medicare and other federal insurance programs for laboratory tests that were not ordered and were not medically necessary.
Damon agreed to pay a criminal fine of $35.3 million and to pay the government $83.7 million to settle the whistleblower lawsuits.
Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the 1990s
13) Damon Clinical Laboratories, Inc.
Type of Crime: Fraud
Criminal Fine: $35.2 million
Stage Stores emerges from bankruptcy
Stage Stores emerges from bankruptcy
So Mitt Romney's BAIN CAPITAL captured Stage Stores, forced them to buy 240 stores to look good on paper, pumped the stock up to record levels, pulled out their management fees and sent Stage Stores into bankruptcy. When Stage Stores used bankruptcy to shuck 52 cents on every dollar it owed, and dumped the 249 stores it never needed in the first place, it came out of bankruptcy while it's stockholders went into personal bankruptcy for believing the pump-and-dump stock scheme.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
The Misery of Mitt Romney
March 08, 2011
Credit: Boston Globe/New York Times
Ten years ago, George W. Bush was sworn in as America's first MBA President. Now, Mitt Romney wants to be the second. Two years after President Bush completed the worst economic record since Herbert Hoover, Romney the perpetual White House hopeful declared, "I spent my career in the private sector. I know how jobs are created and how jobs are lost." Especially, it turns out, the part about how jobs are lost.
Addressing New Hampshire Republicans Saturday, Governor Romney decried the state of the U.S. economy. "This is the Obama Misery Index, he said, "and it is at a record high. It's going to take more than new rhetoric to put Americans back to work--it's going to take a new president." In a Boston Herald op-ed Tuesday, Mitt regurgitated both his Obama Misery Index and "I know a thing or two about how jobs are created and how they are lost" talking points. At CPAC last month, Romney was clear about who that new president should be:
On the stump in Florida three years ago, Romney made the case that his Harvard MBA, his tenure at Bain, his Salt Lake Olympics experience and his stewardship of Massachusetts made him uniquely qualified him to lead during tough economic times. The multimillionaire venture capitalist told Florida voters:
In 1994, Romney's career as a vulture capitalist boomeranged against him in his Senate race against Ted Kennedy. The tale of SCM, a northern Indiana-based stationery company purchased by Ampad, a firm owned by Romney and a group of investors, came to dominate the campaign. As the New York Times recounted, in that instance in the vulture capitalist label was well-earned in the subsequent crackdown on the workers there:
For example, the leveraged buyout of medical testing company Dade Behring by Bain and Goldman Sachs in 1994 was followed eight years later by Dade's failure in 2002. But not until Bain Capital had extracted a rich reward:
That revelation came to light four years ago in the run up to Romney's failed 2008 bid for the Republican nomination. His pathetic 24-hour crusade for disinvestment from Iran lasted just as long as it took the press to uncover Bain's business connections with Tehran.
Following the lead of once and future Israeli Prime Minister (and one-time colleague at Boston Consulting Group) Benjamin Netanyahu, Romney began his grandstanding on Iranian disinvestment by targeting the Democratic-controlled states of New York and Massachusetts. On February 22, 2007, Romney sent letters to then New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, Senators Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton as well as state comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli urging a policy of "strategic disinvestment from companies linked to the Iranian regime."
As it turns out, scrutiny begins at home. As the AP detailed, Romney's former employer (Bain and Co.) and the company he founded (Bain Capital) had links to very recent Iranian business deals. Caught flat-footed by his hypocrisy that took the AP less than a day to uncover, Romney feebly responded that his crusade didn't apply to him:
Mitt Romney may want to be the Second MBA President. But Americans still haven't recovered from the first one.
UPDATE: The DNC responded to Romney's latest attack with a catalog of Mitt's dismal record of job creation in Massachusetts and job destruction at Bain. In a nutshell, "Romney's private sector career consisted of profiting off of laying off thousands of workers. Romney's job creation record in Massachusetts was one of the worst in the country."
Addressing New Hampshire Republicans Saturday, Governor Romney decried the state of the U.S. economy. "This is the Obama Misery Index, he said, "and it is at a record high. It's going to take more than new rhetoric to put Americans back to work--it's going to take a new president." In a Boston Herald op-ed Tuesday, Mitt regurgitated both his Obama Misery Index and "I know a thing or two about how jobs are created and how they are lost" talking points. At CPAC last month, Romney was clear about who that new president should be:
If I decide to run for President, it won't take me two years to wake up to the job crisis threatening America. And I won't be asking Tim Geithner how the economy works-or Larry Summers how to start a business.If Mitt's line sounds familiar, it should. In his latest incarnation, the man Michael Kinsley deemed "the most transparent candidate" is once again campaigning to be America's CEO.
On the stump in Florida three years ago, Romney made the case that his Harvard MBA, his tenure at Bain, his Salt Lake Olympics experience and his stewardship of Massachusetts made him uniquely qualified him to lead during tough economic times. The multimillionaire venture capitalist told Florida voters:
"I know how America works because I spent my life in the real economy...I won't need a briefing on how the economy works. I've been there. I know how the economy works."Days earlier, Romney offered the reader's digest version of his resume:
"I've spent my life, 25 years...in the world of business. I know why jobs come and go."As his record shows, Mitt Romney is all too familiar with why jobs go - out of state, out of the country or just go altogether.
In 1994, Romney's career as a vulture capitalist boomeranged against him in his Senate race against Ted Kennedy. The tale of SCM, a northern Indiana-based stationery company purchased by Ampad, a firm owned by Romney and a group of investors, came to dominate the campaign. As the New York Times recounted, in that instance in the vulture capitalist label was well-earned in the subsequent crackdown on the workers there:
Management has shed 41 of 265 blue-collar jobs, cut wages, tripled some workers' health insurance payments, abolished most of their seniority rights and junked the prior management's union contract, which had two years to run.Romney's record in Massachusetts also loses some its luster upon closer inspection. While his campaign this week boasted of creating 57,600 jobs during Romney's tenure from 2003 to 2007, Northeastern University economist Andrew Sum pointed out that Massachusetts' performance lagged well behind the national average. As Reuters reported:
"The state lagged the U.S. average during that period in job creation, economic growth and wage increases.
As a strict labor market economist looking at the record, Massachusetts did very poorly during the Romney years, he [Sum] said. "On every measure you've got, the state was a substantial under-performer."Two weeks ago, the New York Post, surely no friend of Democrats, documented Mitt Romney's career as a vulture capitalist. As John Kosman detailed, Romney didn't merely produce a "spotty jobs record" when he ran Bain Capital. During a time when he retained a controlling stake, his company reaped huge paydays on investments in firms that later went belly up.
For example, the leveraged buyout of medical testing company Dade Behring by Bain and Goldman Sachs in 1994 was followed eight years later by Dade's failure in 2002. But not until Bain Capital had extracted a rich reward:
Bain reduced Dade's research and development spending to 6 to 7 percent of sales, while its peers allocated between 10 and 15 percent. Dade in June 1999 used the savings as part of the basis to borrow $421 million. Dade then turned around and used $365 million from the loan to buy shares from its owners, giving them a 4.3 times return on their investment.Bain's slash and burn business model didn't end there. As Kosman explained in the Post:
Bain in 1988 put $5 million down to buy Stage Stores, and in the mid-'90s took it public, collecting $100 million from stock offerings. Stage filed for bankruptcy in 2000.
Bain in 1992 bought American Pad & Paper (AMPAD), investing $5 million, and collected $100 million from dividends. The business filed for bankruptcy in 2000.
Bain in 1993 invested $60 million when buying GS Industries, and received $65 million from dividends. GS filed for bankruptcy in 2001.
Bain in 1997 invested $46 million when buying Details, and made $93 million from stock offerings. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2003.Of course, Romney's tenure at Bain also produced some big wins - and job gains - at firms like Staples and Domino's Pizza. But as it turns out, Romney's old employer was also creating jobs in Iran.
That revelation came to light four years ago in the run up to Romney's failed 2008 bid for the Republican nomination. His pathetic 24-hour crusade for disinvestment from Iran lasted just as long as it took the press to uncover Bain's business connections with Tehran.
Following the lead of once and future Israeli Prime Minister (and one-time colleague at Boston Consulting Group) Benjamin Netanyahu, Romney began his grandstanding on Iranian disinvestment by targeting the Democratic-controlled states of New York and Massachusetts. On February 22, 2007, Romney sent letters to then New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, Senators Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton as well as state comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli urging a policy of "strategic disinvestment from companies linked to the Iranian regime."
As it turns out, scrutiny begins at home. As the AP detailed, Romney's former employer (Bain and Co.) and the company he founded (Bain Capital) had links to very recent Iranian business deals. Caught flat-footed by his hypocrisy that took the AP less than a day to uncover, Romney feebly responded that his crusade didn't apply to him:
"This is something for now-forward. I wouldn't begin to say that people who, in the past, have been doing business with Iran, are subject to the same scrutiny as that which is going on from a prospective basis."As Chuck Todd and his NBC News colleagues suggested Monday, the "now-forward" Romney 3.0 launched this weekend in New Hampshire looks a lot like the buggy 1.0 version. After his flip-flopping failure as a hard right social conservative in 2008 and comic retreat from his signature achievement on health care, Mitt Romney is returning to his political roots as a proven business leader. Unfortunately for Romney, Americans have already seen this picture and already know how it ends.
Mitt Romney may want to be the Second MBA President. But Americans still haven't recovered from the first one.
UPDATE: The DNC responded to Romney's latest attack with a catalog of Mitt's dismal record of job creation in Massachusetts and job destruction at Bain. In a nutshell, "Romney's private sector career consisted of profiting off of laying off thousands of workers. Romney's job creation record in Massachusetts was one of the worst in the country."
Romney’s Bain Capital Profited Through Offshore Tax Havens, Closing U.S. Factories, Laying Off Workers
January 17, 2008
During his campaign, Republican candidate Mitt Romney has preached a message of economic populism by vowing to fight to keep jobs in America. We take a look at Romney’s days heading up the buyout firm Bain Capital with Los Angeles Times reporter, Bob Drogin. He writes, "From 1984 until 1999, Romney led Bain Capital, a Boston-based private equity group that earned jaw-dropping profits through leveraged buyouts, debt hedge funds, offshore tax havens and other financial strategies. In some cases, Romney’s team closed U.S. factories, causing hundreds of layoffs, or pocketed huge fees shortly before companies collapsed." [includes rush transcript]
AMY GOODMAN: OK. Also, I wanted to ask you about the AmPad deal. And we only have a minute to go.
BOB DROGIN: OK. AmPad was basically one of the deals that came back and really caused a problem for Romney back in 1994, when he ran against Ted Kennedy, when he made his first bid for elected office. He ran for the US Senate seat for Massachusetts. AmPad was a company they bought in 1992, and—Bain Capital, sorry—made a big investment and essentially bought the company. And after they bought it, the new management team that went in closed factories, fired a lot of people and really slashed the operations. And when he ran for Senate, some of these striking workers came and picketed him and really dogged his campaign, and it created a pretty ugly labor dispute. I think Kennedy described, you know, Romney at the time as putting profits over people.
And after the campaign was over, they took AmPad public—and he lost—they took AmPad public, and it prospered for about a year, and then it crashed into bankruptcy, and by then Bain—and laid off, you know, several thousand people. By then, Bain Capital had taken out, I was able to document, $102 million. And that was a model that we saw in a number of places. I found about at least a half-a-dozen companies, where Bain Capital essentially bought in; laid people off; stripped it down; took out, in some cases, tens of millions of dollars or hundreds of millions; and then the company crashed into bankruptcy.
AMY GOODMAN: OK. Also, I wanted to ask you about the AmPad deal. And we only have a minute to go.
BOB DROGIN: OK. AmPad was basically one of the deals that came back and really caused a problem for Romney back in 1994, when he ran against Ted Kennedy, when he made his first bid for elected office. He ran for the US Senate seat for Massachusetts. AmPad was a company they bought in 1992, and—Bain Capital, sorry—made a big investment and essentially bought the company. And after they bought it, the new management team that went in closed factories, fired a lot of people and really slashed the operations. And when he ran for Senate, some of these striking workers came and picketed him and really dogged his campaign, and it created a pretty ugly labor dispute. I think Kennedy described, you know, Romney at the time as putting profits over people.
And after the campaign was over, they took AmPad public—and he lost—they took AmPad public, and it prospered for about a year, and then it crashed into bankruptcy, and by then Bain—and laid off, you know, several thousand people. By then, Bain Capital had taken out, I was able to document, $102 million. And that was a model that we saw in a number of places. I found about at least a half-a-dozen companies, where Bain Capital essentially bought in; laid people off; stripped it down; took out, in some cases, tens of millions of dollars or hundreds of millions; and then the company crashed into bankruptcy.
To assess Romney, look beyond the bottom line
December 16, 2007 |Bob Drogin | Times Staff Writer
(Page 3 of 3)
... Romney and his team gained huge profits from at least half a dozen companies that soon crashed into bankruptcy.
In 1997 Romney and his team purchased a stake in DDi Corp., an Anaheim-based maker of printed electronic circuit boards. Three years later, Bain Capital netted a $36-million profit after it took the company public. Romney sold his own shares for $4.1 million, according to federal securities records, although his profit margin is unclear.
But DDi's stock soon collapsed, and the company filed for bankruptcy in August 2003, laying off more than 2,100 workers. Bain Capital and DDi executives jointly settled a federal class action lawsuit in March, agreeing to pay $4.4 million to shareholders who argued that DDi was poorly managed and "hemorrhaging cash" before the stock offering, court records show. Romney was not named in the suit.
Still other troublesome cases emerged when Romney ran for governor of Massachusetts in 2002. Chief among them was Damon Corp., a medical testing company based in Needham, a Boston suburb.
Romney had joined Damon's board of directors after Bain Capital purchased a stake in 1990. He remained there until Corning Inc. bought the company three years later. Bain tripled its investment.
Romney personally profited on the sale, claiming more than $100,000 in capital gains on sales of his own Damon stock, records showed.
But in 1996, Damon pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston to massive overbilling of the Medicare system and paid $119 million in criminal and civil fines.
Then-U.S. Atty. Donald K. Stern called it "a case, pure and simple, of corporate greed run amok." No one at Bain was implicated in the fraud.
Asked about the case during his gubernatorial campaign, Romney told reporters that he "blew the whistle" on the overbilling scheme while still on the Damon board, and had taken "corrective action."
In a recent telephone interview, Stern said he had no recollection of Romney alerting investigators or taking other action. Court records in the case showed the illegal scam continued unabated until Bain Capital sold Damon in 1993.
Romney's aides now argue that reporters misunderstood his claim back in 2002.
Romney and other members of the board had hired a New York law firm to review Damon's billing practices after a rival medical company had pleaded guilty to fraud, Damon records showed. The law firm recommended Damon change billing procedures but found no evidence of fraud.
Despite the failures, outside experts say Romney led his company to extraordinary success.
"It's a puzzle that people criticize him for making a lot of money" said Steven N. Kaplan, professor of entrepreneurship and finance at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. "He ran his company for his shareholders. That was his job."
bob.drogin@latimes.com
(Page 3 of 3)
To assess Romney, look beyond the bottom line
... Romney and his team gained huge profits from at least half a dozen companies that soon crashed into bankruptcy.
In 1997 Romney and his team purchased a stake in DDi Corp., an Anaheim-based maker of printed electronic circuit boards. Three years later, Bain Capital netted a $36-million profit after it took the company public. Romney sold his own shares for $4.1 million, according to federal securities records, although his profit margin is unclear.
But DDi's stock soon collapsed, and the company filed for bankruptcy in August 2003, laying off more than 2,100 workers. Bain Capital and DDi executives jointly settled a federal class action lawsuit in March, agreeing to pay $4.4 million to shareholders who argued that DDi was poorly managed and "hemorrhaging cash" before the stock offering, court records show. Romney was not named in the suit.
Still other troublesome cases emerged when Romney ran for governor of Massachusetts in 2002. Chief among them was Damon Corp., a medical testing company based in Needham, a Boston suburb.
Romney had joined Damon's board of directors after Bain Capital purchased a stake in 1990. He remained there until Corning Inc. bought the company three years later. Bain tripled its investment.
Romney personally profited on the sale, claiming more than $100,000 in capital gains on sales of his own Damon stock, records showed.
But in 1996, Damon pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston to massive overbilling of the Medicare system and paid $119 million in criminal and civil fines.
Then-U.S. Atty. Donald K. Stern called it "a case, pure and simple, of corporate greed run amok." No one at Bain was implicated in the fraud.
Asked about the case during his gubernatorial campaign, Romney told reporters that he "blew the whistle" on the overbilling scheme while still on the Damon board, and had taken "corrective action."
Romney's aides now argue that reporters misunderstood his claim back in 2002.
Romney and other members of the board had hired a New York law firm to review Damon's billing practices after a rival medical company had pleaded guilty to fraud, Damon records showed. The law firm recommended Damon change billing procedures but found no evidence of fraud.
Despite the failures, outside experts say Romney led his company to extraordinary success.
"It's a puzzle that people criticize him for making a lot of money" said Steven N. Kaplan, professor of entrepreneurship and finance at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. "He ran his company for his shareholders. That was his job."
bob.drogin@latimes.com
Mitt Romney, Vulture Capitalist
| March 7, 2011 | |
 | |
 | Mitt Romney, Vulture Capitalist  Ten years ago, George W. Bush was sworn in as America's first MBA President. Now, Mitt Romney wants to be the second. Two years after President Bush completed the worst economic record since Herbert Hoover, Romney the perpetual White House hopeful declared, "I spent my career in the private sector. I know how jobs are created and how jobs are lost." Especially, it turns out, the part about how jobs are lost. Addressing New Hampshire Republicans Saturday, Governor Romney decried the state of the U.S. economy. "This is the Obama Misery Index, he said, "and it is at a record high. It's going to take more than new rhetoric to put Americans back to work--it's going to take a new president." At CPAC last month, Romney was clear about who that new president should be: If I decide to run for President, it won't take me two years to wake up to the job crisis threatening America. And I won't be asking Tim Geithner how the economy works-or Larry Summers how to start a business.If Mitt's line sounds familiar, it should. Campaigning in Florida three years ago, Romney made the case that his Harvard MBA, his tenure at Bain, his Salt Lake Olympics experience and his stewardship of Massachusetts uniquely qualified him as America's CEO during tough economic times. The multimillionaire venture capitalist told Florida voters: "I know how America works because I spent my life in the real economy...I won't need a briefing on how the economy works. I've been there. I know how the economy works."Days earlier, Romney offered the reader's digest version of his resume: "I've spent my life, 25 years...in the world of business. I know why jobs come and go."As his record shows, Mitt Romney is all too familiar with why jobs go - out of state, out of the country or just go altogether. In 1994, Romney's career as a vulture capitalist boomeranged against him in his Senate race against Ted Kennedy. The tale of SCM, a northern Indiana-based stationery company purchased by Ampad, a firm owned by Romney and a group of investors, came to dominate the campaign. As the New York Times recounted, in that instance in the vulture capitalist label was well-earned in the subsequent crackdown on the workers there: Management has shed 41 of 265 blue-collar jobs, cut wages, tripled some workers' health insurance payments, abolished most of their seniority rights and junked the prior management's union contract, which had two years to run.Romney's record in Massachusetts also loses some its luster upon closer inspection. While his campaign this week boasted of creating 57,600 jobs during Romney's tenure from 2003 to 2007, Northeastern University economist Andrew Sum pointed out that Massachusetts' performance lagged well behind the national average. As Reuters reported: "The state lagged the U.S. average during that period in job creation, economic growth and wage increases. As a strict labor market economist looking at the record, Massachusetts did very poorly during the Romney years, he [Sum] said. "On every measure you've got, the state was a substantial under-performer."Two weeks ago, the New York Post, surely no friend of Democrats, documented Mitt Romney's career as a vulture capitalist. As John Kosman detailed, Romney didn't merely produce a "spotty jobs record" when he ran Bain Capital. During a time when he retained a controlling stake, his company reaped huge paydays on investments in firms that later went belly up. For example, the leveraged buyout of medical testing company Dade Behring by Bain and Goldman Sachs in 1994 was followed eight years later by Dade's failure in 2002. But not until Bain Capital had extracted a rich reward: Bain reduced Dade's research and development spending to 6 to 7 percent of sales, while its peers allocated between 10 and 15 percent. Dade in June 1999 used the savings as part of the basis to borrow $421 million. Dade then turned around and used $365 million from the loan to buy shares from its owners, giving them a 4.3 times return on their investment.Bain's slash and burn business model didn't end there. As Kosman explained in the Post: Bain in 1988 put $5 million down to buy Stage Stores, and in the mid-'90s took it public, collecting $100 million from stock offerings. Stage filed for bankruptcy in 2000. Bain in 1992 bought American Pad & Paper (AMPAD), investing $5 million, and collected $100 million from dividends. The business filed for bankruptcy in 2000.Of course, Romney's tenure at Bain also produced some big wins - and job gains - at firms like Staples and Domino's Pizza. But as it turns out, Romney's old employer was also creating jobs in Iran. That revelation came to light four years ago in the run up to Romney's failed 2008 bid for the Republican nomination. His pathetic 24-hour crusade for disinvestment from Iran lasted just as long as it took the press to uncover Bain's business connections with Tehran. Following the lead of once and future Israeli Prime Minister (and one-time colleague at Boston Consulting Group) Benjamin Netanyahu, Romney began his grandstanding on Iranian disinvestment by targeting the Democratic-controlled states of New York and Massachusetts. On February 22, 2007, Romney sent letters to then New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, Senators Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton as well as state comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli urging a policy of "strategic disinvestment from companies linked to the Iranian regime." As it turns out, scrutiny begins at home. As the AP detailed, Romney's former employer (Bain and Co.) and the company he founded (Bain Capital) had links to very recent Iranian business deals. Caught flat-footed by his hypocrisy that took the AP less than a day to uncover, Romney feebly responded that his crusade didn't apply to him: "This is something for now-forward. I wouldn't begin to say that people who, in the past, have been doing business with Iran, are subject to the same scrutiny as that which is going on from a prospective basis."As Chuck Todd and his NBC News colleagues suggested Monday, the "now-forward" Romney 3.0 launched this weekend in New Hampshire looks a lot like the buggy 1.0 version. After his flip-flopping failure as a hard right social conservative in 2008 and comic retreat from his signature achievement on health care, Mitt Romney is returning to his political roots as a proven business leader. Unfortunately for Romney, Americans have already seen this picture and already know how it ends. Mitt Romney may want to be the Second MBA President. But Americans still haven't recovered from the first one. UPDATE: The DNC responded to Romney's latest attack with a catalog of Mitt's dismal record of job creation in Massachusetts and job destruction at Bain. In a nutshell, "Romney's private sector career consisted of profiting off of laying off thousands of workers. Romney's job creation record in Massachusetts was one of the worst in the country." |
From "The Making of Mitt Romney,"
Boston Globe, June 26, 2007
In 1992, Bain Capital acquired American Pad & Paper, or Ampad, from Mead Corp., embarking on a ''roll-up strategy'' in which a firm buys up similar companies in the same industry in order to expand revenues and cut costs.Through Ampad, Bain bought several other office supply makers, borrowing heavily each time. By 1999, Ampad's debt reached nearly $400 million, up from $11 million in 1993, according to government filings.
Sales grew, too - for a while. But by the late 1990s, foreign competition and increased buying power by superstores like Bain-funded Staples sliced Ampad's revenues.
The result: Ampad couldn't pay its debts and plunged into bankruptcy. Workers lost jobs and stockholders were left with worthless shares.
Bain Capital, however, made money - and lots of it. The firm put just $5 million into the deal, but realized big returns in short order. In 1995, several months after shuttering a plant in Indiana and firing roughly 200 workers, Bain Capital borrowed more money to have Ampad buy yet another company, and pay Bain and its investors more than $60 million - in addition to fees for arranging the deal.
Bain Capital took millions more out of Ampad by charging it $2 million a year in management fees, plus additional fees for each Ampad acquisition. In 1995 alone, Ampad paid Bain at least $7 million. The next year, when Ampad began selling shares on public stock exchanges, Bain Capital grabbed another $2 million fee for arranging the initial public offering - on top of the $45 million to $50 million Bain reaped by selling some of its shares.
Bain Capital didn't escape Ampad's eventual bankruptcy unscathed. It held about one-third of Ampad's shares, which became worthless. But while as many as 185 workers near Buffalo lost jobs in a 1999 plant closing, Bain Capital and its investors ultimately made more than $100 million on the deal.
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