Romney timeline at Bain 1999-2002

[Crabtownboy]

Here is a timeline of his activities. You have to decide whether he was actively involved or not.

February 11, 1999
Romney announces his departure from Bain Capital to run the Salt Lake City Olympics. The Boston Herald reports that "he will stay on as a part-timer with Bain, providing input on investment and key personnel decisions." In Turnaround, he writes of his decision, "I would walk away from my leadership at Bain Capital at the height of its profitability and take a position without compensation." According to Bain Capital and the Romney campaign, this marks the drop-dead point: "He has had no involvement in the management or investment activities of Bain Capital, or with any of its portfolio companies since that time," a Bain spokeswoman told David Corn in July.

March 25, 1999
More than a month after Romney claims to have retired from the company, new filings with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) indicate that he is still the sole shareholder and president of Brookside and Sankaty.

July 19, 1999
A Bain Capital press release notes that Romney is "currently on a part-time leave of absence to head the Salt Lake Olympic Committee" and quotes him praising two departing subordinates.

November 1999
Along with Chicago-based private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners, Bain purchases $75 million worth of shares in Stericycle, a medical waste company that, among other things, disposes of aborted fetuses. Documents filed with the SEC state that Romney has "voting and dispositive power" as CEO of Bain.

Jan. 3, 2000
An SEC document signed by Romney states: “W. Mitt Romney is principally engaged in the business of serving as sole stockholder of BCI VI, Inc. (Bain Capital Investors VI).” Another SEC filing seven months later identifies him as "managing director of Bain Capital"

June 2000
A glitch in the Matrix? Romney not included on a list of 18 private equity fund managers provided by Bain Capital in advance of the firm's seventh private equity fund.

Nov. 11, 2000
Ann Romney tells the Boston Globe that Bain has absorbed almost all of her husband's time. Romney "has had to lessen his involvement with Bain Capital, his investment firm," the paper reports.

Dec. 2000
Bain Capital makes one of its most controversial acquisitions, paying $300 million for KB Toys, most of it borrowed. KB later took out loans to pay out bonuses to Bain execs worth more than $120 million. It filed for bankruptcy in 2004 and closed 600 stores.

Jan. 2001
A new venture capital offshoot, Bain Capital Venture Fund, launches, with no mention of Romney.

Feb. 2001
In an SEC filing, Romney lists his "principal occupation" as "managing director of Bain Capital." That same year, a filing with the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission filing notes that Romney sits on the board of LifeLike, a doll manufacturer acquired by Bain at Romney's direction. Documents submitted to the SEC in May identify Romney as a "member of the management committee" of two other Bain entitites.

Aug. 2001
Leaving for real this time: The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Romney gives up "control over all of Bain Capital’s voting stock, dividing the shares between the two dozen directors. The divestiture had no financial ramifications, Romney said, affecting only the management and control of the company." This change in status was affirmed by Romney's lawyer in a 2007 Washington Post interview.

Jan. 2001
Five new entities formed by Bain and incorporated in Delaware list Romney as a manager. Later that year, when it becomes clear he will enter politics rather than return immediately to the private sector, Romney and Bain finalize his severance package. The 10-year deal is retroactive to 1999.

June 2002
n order to demonstrate that he's eligible to be on the ballot in Massachusetts, Romney testifies to the state Ballot Law Commission that he sat on the board of Lifelike and Staples, and flew home regularly for board meetings: "[T]here were a number of social trips and business trips that brought me back to Massachusetts, board meetings, Thanksgiving and so forth."

Dec. 2002
One month after Romney defeats Democrat Shannon O'Brien to become Massachusetts' governor-elect, Bain files an annual report with the state listing Romney as a managing member of the firm.
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/07/mitt-romney-bain-capital-timeline

 

[carpro]

Nobody cares. It's a non issue.

Been proven to be a lie multiple times.

But I understand why democrats can't talk about the performance of the zero.

Zero...couldn't be much more descriptive name for Obama and his performance.:thumbs:

 

[webdog]

From what I understand, he retired rectroactively. He had no active role past 1999...and anyone who has started a business knows the red tape and paperwork issues involved. Obama wouldn't know...we have no record of his history or how he made his millions.

 

[mandym]

Romney’s Bain Years: New Evidence, Same Conclusion

New reporting cites strong evidence that Mitt Romney wasn’t actively managing Bain Capital while he was running the Olympics, despite what the Obama campaign (and some news reports) would have voters believe.

Dan Primack, a senior editor at Fortune Magazine, reports on previously confidential “offering documents” that Bain circulated to potential investors in June 2000, September 2000 and again in January 2001. And he says that in each of those three documents Romney’s name is conspicuously absent from lists of senior investment managers at Bain.

This has become a key point of contention, because Obama TV ads accuse Romney of shipping U.S. jobs overseas. We reported that the Obama campaign had failed to back up its claims (“Obama’s ‘Outsourcer’ Overreach,” June 29), partly because Romney had left Bain in February 1999 to run the 2002 Winter Olympic and wasn’t actively in charge of the company at the time.

But the Obama campaign objected, claiming that Romney remained a part-time manager even while he was living in Utah and running the Olympics. We responded, finding the campaign’s evidence “weak or non-existent.”

http://factcheck.org/2012/07/romneys-bain-years-new-evidence-same-conclusion/

 

[preachinjesus]

It's unimportant. You can literally do this for almost every member of Congress that has considerable wealth going into their own freshman terms. Corporate relations and boards have unique functions that most Americans might not completely appreciate because of their lack of exposure to them. Ironically most Americans would love to be on them...part of the hypocrisy of this kind of criticism.

If we look at the rise to power of any of our elected leaders you'll find similar patterns...including President Obama.

I don't care what Romney did with Bain. Part of a free market system that is sustainable and effective is a kind of "creative destruction" (Trumpeter's term) that moves resources from obsolete market sectors and into new ones. I don't blame the executives at Bain, they were being faithful to their principles. In fact it is reasonable to say they created more jobs than they ended. Also, the companies they were creating and modifying are probably stronger because of it. One of the unhappy truths of free markets is that you have treat them like a plant that is pruned and given fertilizer (and we know where that comes from) in order for it to be deeply rooted and grow tall.

 

[targus]

And here is the timeline that crabby keeps ignoring...

You decide if crabby is disingenuous or not...

•Bain Capital sold off 40 percent of its shares in Stericycle in 2001 and sold the rest by 2004.

•Stericycle apparently began contracting with abortion clinics in 2007.

http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/309400/obama-attack-coming-down-road-stericycle

 

[LadyEagle]

I would rather have a successful businessman as President than a flunkie community organizer who sucked from the taxpayers and never started even a lemonade stand or done anything else productive. The zero is a loser who needs to be booted.

 

[targus]

We can't create any kind of timeline for Obama...

Because from his birth forward they won't release any records. :laugh:

 

[InTheLight]

You realize that those SEC filings are typically boilerplate documents and copy-and-paste jobs, right?

 

[Crabtownboy]

You realize that those SEC filings are typically boilerplate documents and copy-and-paste jobs, right?

Yes, and if a CEO has really left his name should have been taken off. Business 101. What new CEO would not have his name on the filing?

Who was really running the company?

 

[OldRegular]

Yes, and if a CEO has really left his name should have been taken off. Business 101. What new CEO would not have his name on the filing?

Who was really running the company?

Has Obama done anything other than run his mouth?

 

[Don]

Yes, and if a CEO has really left his name should have been taken off. Business 101. What new CEO would not have his name on the filing?

Um...Steve Jobs, 2009? It's called a "leave of absence"....

But, only people who have actually participated in the business world understand what a leave of absence is....

 

[Magnetic Poles]

Here ya go...

 

[targus]

Shareholder and CEO don't mean "control".

Also when it was pointed out that Obama cheated on his taxes - weren't you one of the few that were claiming that signing his tax return didn't mean that he actually knew what was in it?

 

[Crabtownboy]

Has Obama done anything other than run his mouth?

A TROLL answer if I ever saw one.

 

[freeatlast]

Yes, and if a CEO has really left his name should have been taken off. Business 101. What new CEO would not have his name on the filing?

Who was really running the company?

This is really a non issue even if true. Nothing but a smoke screen by the whitehouse.

 

[Crabtownboy]

Um...Steve Jobs, 2009? It's called a "leave of absence"....

But, only people who have actually participated in the business world understand what a leave of absence is....

Was Steve Jobs name on the SEC filings during his 'leave of absence'?

 

[saturneptune]

This is really a non issue even if true. Nothing but a smoke screen by the whitehouse.

That is the whole point. If we must create timelines, I am more interested in what Romney did as governor of MA, since that more closely relates to the duties of President. Bain is apples and oranges.

I do not think anyone here is thrilled with Romney, but this is what we have to deal with, and the only chance of getting rid of Obama. It is not a real good chance at that.

 

[targus]

Was Steve Jobs name on the SEC filings during his 'leave of absence'?

You are OFF TOPIC!!!

Steve Jobs is not the topic!!

:laugh:

 

[Don]

Was Steve Jobs name on the SEC filings during his 'leave of absence'?

For both the leaves of absence in 2009 and the one in 2011 -- Yes.

-- Edited for clarification:
Two leaves of absence. One in 2009, one in 2011. For both, Jobs remained listed in all SEC documents as CEO. The difference being, Jobs, in his announcements for his leaves of absence, made it quite clear that he was retaining full control of the company. Romney, on the other hand, made it quite clear that he was focusing on his duties as governor.