Do Bain SEC documents suggest Mitt Romney is a criminal?washingtonpost.com
Do Bain SEC documents suggest Mitt Romney is a criminal?
Made popular 312 days ago in Politics
washingtonpost.com — "Romney and Bain claim that he was not involved with Bain, but Bain and its portfolio companies in their required filings under the Securities Exchange Act continuously certified to the Securities and Exchange Commission say precisely the opposite — asserting without qualification that he was a controlling person, fully in charge of Bain, under the Federal securities law. Under normal circumstances, the question of the truth of this representation would result in an investigation by the SEC into possible criminal, as well as civil, violations of the law."
— Robert Bauer, Obama campaign counsel, July 13, 2012
There is a journalistic convention that appears to place great weight on “SEC documents.” But these are public filings by companies, which usually means there are not great secrets hidden in them. The Fact Checker, in an earlier life covering Wall Street, spent many hours looking for jewels in SEC filings.
As we wrote yesterday, we are standing with our assessment that Mitt Romney left the helm of Bain Capital in 1999, when he departed to run the Salt Lake City Olympics. The date is important because some questionable investments by Bain took place between 1999 and 2002, when he ran for governor. But a Boston Globe article on Thursday raised new questions about that timeline, citing SEC filings, and the Obama campaign jumped to take advantage of it.
Despite the furor, we did not see much new in the Globe article. We had examined many SEC documents related to Romney and Bain in January, and concluded that much of the language saying Romney was “sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president” was boilerplate that did not reveal whether he was actually managing Bain at the time. (For instance, there is no standard definition of a “chief executive,” securities law experts say, and there is no requirement for anyone to have any responsibilities even if they have that title.)
The one thing new we saw in the Globe story was the assertion that “Romney’s state financial disclosure forms indicate he earned at least $100,000 as a Bain ‘executive’ in 2001 and 2002, separate from investment earnings.” But then we realized we had already reviewed those documents in January. The 2001 form describes him as a “former executive” (see page 1 of form A-5) — the campaign says this was retirement pay — but the 2002 form says “executive.” So either you believe he suddenly rejoined the firm, after leaving it, or someone made a typo.

Report This Post
Posted by HStern
Add To Favorites
55 Votes
Similar Issues
5 Comments
ShareThis
Do Bain SEC documents suggest Mitt Romney is a criminal?
Yes
64%
No
36%
This is not a scientific survey, click here to learn more. Results may not total 100% due to rounding and voting descrepencies.
User Comments
james2044
Posted 312 days ago
0 up votes, 0 down votes
Stupidity takes on a life of its' own within the obamanation. The Washington Post said that Obama lies about this. However, the dummy obamanatio members keep yelling. All this proves is:

1) Obama is dishonest
2) Obama thinks his supporters are stupid
3) Obama isright about his supporters
lastbaldeagle
Posted 312 days ago
0 up votes, 0 down votes
Anybody who buys that crap is a total idiot. Is Obama a felon for supplying drugs back in the day? You Koolaid drinkers sure are hypocritical when it comes to deciding what's important. You want your beloved commies forgiven all the time because they really mean well. Anyone who has ever worked for a living and can vote for liberal Marxists like Obama should have their little empty heads examined. The Washington Post is hardy n unbiased source for news.
945call
Posted 312 days ago
0 up votes, 0 down votes
No HStern it doesn't but you're still a Muslim!
lastbaldeagle
Posted 311 days ago
0 up votes, 0 down votes
How do you tell a Romney supporter from an Obama supporter?

Romney supporters sign their checks on the front;

Obama supporters sign theirs on the back.
lightdude
Posted 311 days ago
0 up votes, 0 down votes
H STUB, Nice try dimwit.
You will have 2 minutes to edit your comment.

Add your comments