Last night on “The War Room” we shared new insights into documents that show Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was active in Bain businesses long after he said he’d left the company. The documents are attached here as PDFs, for review. It is said that the devil is in the details — in this case, the proof is in the footnotes. Please turn your attention to Exhibit A-5. Careful review of the notations reveals which businesses Romney retired from, which businesses he claimed to not to be active in and others in which he was active. Download the documents for your own review below.
Here’s Jennifer Granholm’s explanation of what to look for:
Specifically, the interesting information is located in Exhibit A-5 (Employment and Other Associations with Businesses and Non-Governmental Entities). In this exhibit, the footnote on page 2 indicates the following: “1 This designation indicates that while Governor Romney was listed as a general partner of this entity and therefore, in theory, had management authority, in fact he played no active role in the management of this entity.” That footnote was attached to a number of the companies listed in the exhibit — for example, on page two of the exhibit, BCIP Associates has that designation and is further clarified under the Position Held line where Romney is listed as “General Partner (passive).” BUT that footnote and that parenthetical designation are NOT listed on the two entities on page 1 of the Exhibit: Bain Capital Inc., where his position was listed as “Executive” and his salary was “Over $100,000”; and Bain Capital LLC, which also lists his position as “Executive” and his salary as “Over $100,000.”
Similarly, in Exhibit B-6 (Business Ownership/Equity), 35 entities are listed. The footnotes in that exhibit are equally instructive: “i” reflects the following information: “Mr. Romney is a passive, limited partner in this partnership and has no management capacity.” Of the 35 entities, 15 are designated as “passive.” The rest do not have that designation. Thus, the following listed businesses located at the Bain offices that Romney had exclusive control over and in which he had 100 percent ownership did not have the “i” designation and were not passive: Bain Capital Inc., Bain Capital II Inc., Bain Capital Investors Inc., Bain Capital Investors V Inc., Bain Capital Investors VI Inc., Bain Capital NY Inc., BCP Service Corporation, Brookside Capital, Inc., Information Partners Inc. Romney also held 100% ownership in and exclusive control over Sankaty Advisors Inc., which was not located in the Bain offices.
Thus, Romney distinguishes between active and passive involvement in a document signed in 2003 and referring to his activity in 2002. In total, he was active in 11 Bain-related companies in 2002.
