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Via AddictingInfo.org on September 27, 2012
By Don Hamel Creative Commons License
This morning, MoveOn.org sent an 8 page analysis of Mitt Romney’s financial disclosure to the U.S. Department of Justice, outlining their contention that Romney lied about the extent of his involvement in Bain Capital in his federal financial disclosure filing (form SF-278). If that is the case, Mitt Romney could be prosecuted under the federal False Statements Act (18 U.S.C. §1001), a felony.
According to their website the analysis contends, in brief, that:
Romney claimed in his disclosure filing that he departed from “any” active role in Bain Capital in 1999, which would be politically convenient because it was before Bain Capital was most heavily involved in outsourcing jobs. However, the legal analysis released today, which includes a review of state law in Delaware, where Bain Capital was incorporated, concludes that existing evidence is “clearly inconsistent with [Romney’s] flat disavowal of ‘any’ involvement in the ‘operations of any Bain Capital entity in any way’” after 1999.
It is undisputed that Romney was the sole director, Chief Executive Officer and President of Bain Capital, Inc. at least through the middle of 2000. MoveOn’s analysis finds that under Delaware law, while he held these titles, Romney was legally required to maintain “reasonable oversight” of Bain, which contradicts Romney’s claim in his 2011 disclosure filing that he did not have “any” involvement in Bain after 1999.
Reports that Romney’s financial disclosures are at odds with Bain’s records have been widespread. Even ultra-conservative Forbes magazine expressed grave doubts about the veracity of Romney’s timeline. However, like his tax returns, Romney’s seeming unwillingness to deal honestly with voters is a huge, well-known issue, that hasn’t yet been fully explored.
The full text of the document sent to the DOJ was further analyzed and seconded by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), whose Executive Director stated:
CREW strongly supports a Department of Justice investigation into the evidence that Mitt Romney remained involved with Bain Capital after 1999, given that he stated the exact opposite in his financial disclosure forms in apparent violation of the False Statements Act.
Any investigation that the DOJ undertakes will immediately be inundated with accusations of ‘partisan politics.’ But all appearances suggest a rather obvious discrepancy in Bain documentation and Romney’s statements. Furthermore, lazy misrepresentations have been a hallmark of the Romney campaign since its very beginning; it’s almost as if he’s daring someone to do something about it.
And finally, someone has.
