The New York Times is reporting that Bain Capital, the private equity firm founded by GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, is among a number of firms being investigated by New York Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, for failing to pay taxes.
The New York AG’s Taxpayer Protection Bureau has issued subpoenas to at least twelve financial firms, including Bain, looking into whether the companies converted management fees (taxed as ordinary income) paid by investors into fund investments which are taxed at a dramatically lower rate.
The controversial tax avoidance scheme came to light last month when Bain Capital internal financial information was published online by Gawker.com , however the investigation had reportedly commenced prior to the publication and is not believed to be tied to the document dump.
While Governor Romney has not been active at Bain Capital for quite some time, he does continue to receive profits from the company and held investments in some of the funds that utilized the tax avoidance strategy.
The Romney campaign issued a statement indicating that the Governor had not benefited from the practice.
Well of COURSE the Romney campaign will say that Mitt the Twit did not benefit from these practices. But since they refuse to release his tax results we can't know that, now can we?
However THIS is a very big deal, and it cannot help but cast a shadow over Mitt Romney, and the company that he helped to found. Of course this will make absolutely NO difference to those who were always going to vote for the Republican ticket, but it might have a withering effect on the3 undecideds whose vote might still be up for grabs.
O/T: Hey Gryph, found this when I was arguing with some TeaTHUG in my local paper, what do you know , if anything, about the third project, and if you've already covered it, my apologies.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.factcheck.org/2012/02/did-obama-approve-bridge-work-for-chinese-firms/
"The third project — a $190 million project in Alaska — went unnamed in the ABC News broadcast. However, it was named in a longer, print version of Cuomo’s report that ran on ABC News’ website that same day. In that report, ABC News said Alaska was “set to spend millions on foreign materials for the Tanana River Bridge Crossing and would largely fabricate the bridge overseas.” The article did not say whether any federal money would be used on the Alaska project. However, we found that it does involve federal money."
Is your Google broken? Can you read? All the answers you seek are in the REST of the article YOU cite as well as at the 2011 FDNM article.
DeletePlease don't go off topic to blame the President for the actions of Alaska. I'll leave out a lengthy diatribe on what I, a former Alaskan, think of that state so we can get back to BAIN BAIN BAIN BAIN BAIN and the dishonesty of ROMNEY.
Anonymous6:31 AM:
DeleteYou need to learn comprehensive reading skills.
Gryphen, can you confirm or refudiate the rumor circulating among some pundintarians and political hobbyists alike that Mittens is about to undertake a high-profile cross-country bus tour called "The Mittens-Obama Debates" featuring the GOP candidate debating an empty chair?
ReplyDeleteApparently patterned after the storied "Lincoln-Douglas debates of the 1860 election" only without any participants approaching the stature of either Mr. Lincoln or Mr. Douglas, the modern version will rely on Mr. Rmoney's little known talent for ventriloquism as he provides the voices for his own replies and those of the absent President Obama.
Could such an undertaking tip the balance of the election in Mittens' favor? Very possibly, yes!!
People who have seen the test video shot in a secret location say that without any doubt, under these conditions, Mittens vividly comes across as a world class master debater.
lol. Romney's been fooling us all along. He's going to do the electric slide onto the stage while "I feel like busting loose" plays in the background. Gonna throw that Obama fellow for a loop.
DeleteRomney is being investigated, so should the Palins!
ReplyDeleteThe biggest Alaskan scam besides Sarah's other scams is the Palin SarahPac scam.
In all these years, how much money has SarahPac taken in and how much actually went towards other political candidates?
NOT MUCH!!!!!!
The Palins has made a very comfortable living off of that scam.
Not to mention, how much money has her friends and relatives made by licking stamps?
That's why Sarah Palin is through with any elected office. She can't even be elected dog cather!!!!!!!!
Did she ever return the money for that other Alaska Legal Defense fund? You know the one that was illegal?
Deletehttp://www.reuters.com/article/2010/06/25/us-usa-politics-palin-idUSTRE65O0AG20100625
Forget Sarah: she is SO over! Nothing she does or says will impact our lives. As for Mitt- that's a whole other story. He and his Mommy/Wife are total fakes who care nothing about anything other than snaring the presidency. Remember: a grandfather who cuts the line so he can fill his plate before women and little children by any other name is an ass%*&@! OBAMA 2012: Let's keep SANITY and COMPASSION in office.
DeleteBuh bye, Sarah... and take that ignorant unkempt herd with you! I hope in the future you will be content to be a good person, a good wife and a devoted mother to all your children, whether they pay political dividends or not! Yeah, right-like that's ever going to happen. It has truly been a horror to know you. I am praying for your children and grandchildren!
DeleteAnonymous9:48 AM
DeleteDid she ever return the money for that other Alaska Legal Defense fund? You know the one that was illegal?
*************************************
She kept the money, by putting it in SarahPac, and it looks like that money went for personal use.
Anonymous10:16 AM
DeleteSarah Palin cannot be a good anything. She is just rotten and evil to the core. She failed at everything, wife,mother, mayor, governor, VP candidate ETC.
Before Sarah Palin admit George W. Bush Exists (Maher video) http://tinyurl.com/8scp6km
Deletehttp://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/02/1126921/-HEY-You-Can-Use-Your-Website-to-Help-Register-People-to-Vote
ReplyDeleteAnyone with a blog or website can use an app from the Obama campaign to help register people to vote. Let's get people register -- we need to hear the voices of the human people to silence the voices of the corporation people
As always, love ya Beldar!
ReplyDeleteDear Gryphen,
ReplyDeleteThis is why the press (now known as "the news media,") were called hundreds of years ago as "The Fourth Estate."
A free and unfettered press, speaking as representatives of the public, is the best guarantee that as much information as possible is available to voters.
When Ann Romney says "you people," meaning the press, but, in effect, everyone in the country, don't need any more tax information, SHE is deciding what kinds of facts we'll use to make up our minds. It's not her choice to make, as Geo. Romney and all others have demonstrated.
When the Romney campaign won't answer what specifically they'll do after election day, or refuse to give the press access to their plans, again, they take away our fundamental rights.
Sarah Palin, if she ever set foot in a journalism/communications class, would have learned this on day one.
Instead, she whines about the "lamestream media" looking for legitimate information. Just because it's information she doesn't want to be made public doesn't make it "liberal." Lots of liberals would like the press to leave them alone, too.
Today, with so many blogs and so many citizen reporters, she can't block us all out. The truth will come out, I trust, but will it come out by November.
Accept no "no comments." Get the information we, as a free people, are supposed to have, as The Founding Fathers intended us to have when they rang their bells.
@SarahPaIinUSA
ReplyDeleteI have watched that damn video of Clint Eastwood's speech three or four times now, and I really don't think there was anyone in that chair.
https://twitter.com/SarahPaIinUSA/status/241574698637479938
Eastwood's head was also empty.
DeleteThat is a satire account?
DeleteIt isn't Palin.
DeleteWhen people say how smart Romney is, I just shake my head. He has been running for the office of President for at least 6 years, yet he has failed to clean up his background. He thinks all he has to do is send out his Mommy - er - wife, to say "You people will not get any more tax releases" and it will all go away. Personally I think he is not too smart, just had smart people manage his money and put it into overseas banks. Mittens and W are a lot alike, both rich frat boys who never really grew up.
ReplyDeleteHow right you are. He is nothing more than an entitled frat boy who had never matured. God help us if he becomes POTUS. He'll make W look reasonable!
DeleteI can never forget this one, Boo Boo beat up Eastwood skit and what was to be Romeny's big moment to prove he is warm and fuzzy and an honest business expert. ALL EPIC FAIL and now his dear Bain under investigation for capital crimes.
ReplyDeleteIn the demo, Honey Boo Boo did even better. The half-hour series' showing among adults 18-49 bested all other cable outings for the night -- including coverage of the Republican National Convention -- to pull a 1.3 rating.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/honey-boo-boo-ratings-republican-national-convention-367022
Karl Rove Apology, IS THIS A FIRST ?????
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/01/karl-rove-apology_n_1849180.html
I wonder if honey Bo Bo's relatives vote repub? They live in a red state, mom has had 4 kids by 4 different men and now her 17 year old just made her a grandma at 34.They are starting to make the Palins look respectable!!
ReplyDeleteOT: I just spent a little time reading the comments on a left-wing site in reaction to a John Cusack interview and my head is spinning. PEOPLE ARE GOING TO VOTE GREEN AND HELP MITT ROMNEY BECAUSE...BECAUSE OF THE WAR...AND BECAUSE THEY ARE STUPID. PLEASE -- Help me tell these people that they're wrong..
ReplyDeleteHere's a comment that I submitted. It's sort of nasty, but -- I'm at my wit's end! How do you tell irrational people that they're being irrational?
You people are all nuts. You cling to your ideology so hard that you refuse to see the forest. You refuse to understand that policy has nuanced intentions -- everything is black and white. Take the Bin Laden killing. If you really think that it would have been better for the US to arrest him and put him on trial, to put him in the middle of NYC and allow him to stand trial for the World Trade Center attack than it would be to kill him, then you have no ability to think critically. Holding Bin Laden hostage -- which is how Islamic extremists would see such an arrest -- would lead to kidnappings, bombings, dozens of misguided attempts to free OBL from jail. More blood would be shed. To you, those deaths would be a kind of collateral damage to justice -- but to the family's of the victims, it would be a terrible, meaningless loss. Killing OBL WAS the right decision -- Can't you see that? No, you can't, because the world is black and white. Obama is the "mass killer"...Nevermind all the people who might have been killed otherwise -- HE'S the monster --- which is why you're going to vote for ROSEANNE BARR to be president. Because she'd DEFINITELY do the right thing (**eye roll**).
Yeah, Roseanne Barr is DEFINITELY NOT a power mad control freak!
(***another eye roll**)
Meanwhile, the consequence of your vote -- your self-righteous little protest -- will be thousands of MORE deaths, another war in the Middle East, the elimination of Medicare and the seating of three giant conservatives on the Supreme Court bench. Environmental regulations will be gutted to serve Romney's corporate masters, the Koch Brothers. Fuel standards will be lowered, funding for green energy will be cut and people will get kicked off their healthcare plan for pre-existing conditions -- like being pregnant! -- and babies who are less than a year old will find that they've reached their lifetime limit for insurance coverage -- it happens -- premature babies can EASILY rack up million$$$$ in healthcare costs -- and who HAS premature babies? A lot of times, it's low-income women who don't have the money to take pre-natal vitamins. And you can bet that Israel will bomb Iran and that we'll end up joining in -- that and lower taxes for the rich are probably the one thing you'll be able to count on from a Mittens' presidency. Oh -- but that's okay. Go on with your little protest. Your IDEALS are SOOOOOOOO much more important than the lives of average people. And, hey, if a few hundred thousand Iranians have to die so that you can feel smug, so be it. YOU know what's REALLY important, that the "mass murderer" didn't get re-elected.
But, hey, who knows! Maybe if things get REALLY bad, a true progressive who will agree with your black/white world view 100% of the time will emerge from the Democratic party and you'll be able to vote for THAT person in 2016 -- YEAH, and then, magically when he or she gets elected, all the people who were killed in Romney's war will magically return to life --
(EYE ROLL SO GIANT IT MIGHT CAUSE STRAIN).
To Anon at 10.19
DeleteYour comment isn't nasty. It's the truth.
That was an epic rant that I fully appreciate and applaud! And I see nothing nasty about it, it's the god's truth.
DeleteWait... They were going to vote against Obama BECAUSE of OBL's death/assassination?? If we put him on trial, how the hell could anyone stand that jury unprejudiced? No one! It's be military court and the same thing woulda happened. Our president saved more lives by giving the order to take him out when he did. OBAMA2012!!
DeleteO/T. This makes for very uncomfortable reading. It shines a light on some of the things that have made me uneasy in the last four years. And I wonder how we can have a conversation around them next week:
ReplyDeletehttp://truth-out.org/opinion/item/11264-john-cusack-and-jonathan-turley-on-obamas-constitution
Aurora
John Cusack should stick to B movies. And Jonathan Turley is naive. And wrong.
DeleteWhat is it this week? Oh wait, I know! We've mentioned BAIN and ROMNEY and TAX EVASION in the same sentence!
Mitt Romney stole my husband's pension.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous9:48 AM
ReplyDeleteDid she ever return the money for that other Alaska Legal Defense fund? You know the one that was illegal?
http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/06/25/us-usa-politics-palin-idUSTRE65O0AG20100625
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Did Sarah Palin or SarahPac ever return the money she collected when they got people to donate to Sarah to encourage her to run for the 2012 presidency but she didn't? Where did that money go or aren't we suppose to ask?
I think Trig has Bristol's round face before Bristol got her chin implant.
ReplyDeleteI think Trig is Bristol's child.
Sorry, wrong post.
DeleteI really wish that there was something here but I doubt it. Sure, it ties Mitt to Bain but ultimately he will deny it or deny being with Bain when all of this happened.
ReplyDeleteI hope this vindicates Harry Reid's comment about a source giving him information about Romney's Tax returns.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen any program touch this, but it is a holiday weekend and the exposure would probably be greater next week, hopefully on The Daily Show.