There is a simple answer as to why Bain and Romney remain so steadfastly adamant that he had nothing to do with Bain during the runup to the 2002 SLC Winter Olympics.
That simple answer is that Romney and Bain appear to have used the Olympics as a vehicle for personal enrichment, and appear to have been very successful in their endeavor.
David S Bernstein, writing in a 2007/08/10 Phoenix.com piece titled Mitt's Equity Army lays out the basic facts, below the orange indictment.
Bernstein lays out the basic facts: Bribery scandal threatens the Olympics, Mitt rides in to the rescue, starts calling his business connections and drumming up sponsorships.
The details of those deals were never disclosed: Romney exempted them from his “total transparency” pledge regarding the SLOC’s finances and business arrangements.
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In other cases, generosity to the Winter Olympics was followed closely by lucrative deals from Bain Capital, which do not prove a quid pro quo but do raise questions.
Staples: Romney personally tried to get a sponsorship contract for Staples, but Office Depot won out.
Gateway computers: SLC Olympic sponsorship followed by consulting contract with Bain.
John Hunstman: $1million donation to the SLC Olympics followed by a $250million investment from Bain.
Others of the final tally of 53 corporate sponsors were already under Romney and Bain Capital’s influence. Marriott is led by close family friends — now campaign finance co-chairs; plus, Romney was sitting on the company’s board at the time. Sealy, which Bain Capital owned, became a sponsor. So did Monster.com, where one of Romney’s sons worked as a consultant. The vice-chair of General Motors was on Marriott’s board of directors with Romney, as were the directors of Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Sears; all became sponsors. Many other sponsors had extensive business dealings with Bain Capital companies, or had top-ranking executives with past connections to Bain Capital companies. And most of them have come through for Romney again, by donating to his campaign.
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Many of Romney’s Olympic sponsors were pleased enough with the results to financially back Romney’s presidential campaign. So are scores of business owners, land owners, and investors in Utah who made money off of the 2002 Winter Olympics, whether through licensing deals, local development, or other beneficial relationships.
So this is on the one hand all old news (Bernstein's piece is from 2007), but on the other hand, the new revelations and unanswered questions when coupled with Bernstein's piece at a minimum help us understand why it is so necessary that Romney and Bain maintain the fiction that he was not involved with the company during those years.
Let me know what you think in the discussion.
9:55 AM PT: Just to make sure I don't get too far in front of the facts here, let me repost a quote from Bernstein and then a comment I made below.
In other cases, generosity to the Winter Olympics was followed closely by lucrative deals from Bain Capital, which do not prove a quid pro quo but do raise questions.
The mere appearance of conflict of interest (7+ / 0-)
Let's start there.
W Mitt Romney is President and CEO of the SLC Olympic Organizing Committee.
W Mitt Romney is President, CEO, and sole owner of Bain.
Companies owned by Mitt Romney are engaging in business deals with the SLC Olympics corporation, which is run by Mitt Romney.
Mitt Romney exempted those deals from his full disclosure promise.
What do you think?
7:51 PM PT: 2012/07/02 (eleven days ago). Bernstein reposts from the above 2007 piece, ties in current events (Corn/MJ et al) and states thus:
However, Romney remaining in actual control of Bain Capital during those years does make his deal-making for the Salt Lake games look awfully dubious.
http://blog.thephoenix.com/...