Last month The Washington Post ran the stirring story about Romney's Bain Capital shipping jobs overseas to China, and after The Post denied the Romney Campaign's request to retract the story, the campaign settled on the defense that Bain had actually downsized its ownership of Global-Tech. The company responsible for outsourcing.
That was at least partially true, but according to David Corn of MotherJones, what actually happened is the Bain affiliate Brookside split its share of ownership in Global-Tech with Mitt Romney's Bermuda shell corporation.
Brookside downsized its Global-Tech holdings later in 1998. An SEC filing submitted on December 21, 1998, reported that the Bain affiliate now controlled only 4.63 percent of the company's shares. But Brookside was sharing its stake in Global-Tech with Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors LTD—a Bermuda-based corporation of which Romney was the "the sole shareholder, a director, and President." That is, Romney had split his Global-Tech holdings between two of his various business entities. (The SEC filing doesn't indicate why he did that.)
Sankaty is a story in itself. It was recently the focus of an Associated Press investigation that reported that Sankaty "is among several Romney holdings that have not been fully disclosed" and that there is a "mystery surrounding" Sankaty. Reporting on this Romney entity, Vanity Fair noted that "investments in tax havens such as Bermuda raise many questions, because they are in 'jurisdictions where there is virtually no tax and virtually no compliance,' as one Miami-based offshore lawyer put it." With Sankaty, Romney was using a mysterious Bermuda-based entity to invest in a Chinese firm that thrived on US outsourcing.
In early 1999, Romney's investment in Global-Tech expanded again. An SEC report filed on March 25, 1999, stated that Brookside and Sankaty at this stage owned 9.11 percent of the firm's stock. Romney was still listed as the sole shareholder and president of both Brookside and Sankaty.
In case you missed it, here's the original story on Romney's Bermuda money.
(AP) WASHINGTON – For nearly 15 years, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s financial portfolio has included an offshore company that remained invisible to voters as his political star rose. Based in Bermuda, Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors Ltd. was not listed on any of Romney’s state or federal financial reports. The company is among several Romney holdings that have not been fully disclosed, including one that recently posted a $1.9 million earning suggesting he could be wealthier than the nearly $250 million estimated by his campaign.
"I don't even know where my money is" is the defense Romney settled on to explain away his Bermuda money, but given this information, that seems increasingly hard to believe.
Do you really expect us to believe two companies Romney owned split ownership of another and he had no knowledge of it?
Following the revelation today that Romney was still the CEO of Bain Capital for three years longer than he publicly admits according to SEC filings, you're forced to wonder if any of what Romney or Bain say is true.
We simply don't know. And as long as Romney refuses to come clean, these kinds of stories will continue to leak out.
My gut says Romney would rather protect his assets than become president.