Island tax havens factor into Romney's business success: Involvement hasn't previously come to light
By Bob Drogin, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 17, 2007
BOSTON -- Second of two parts
While in private business, Mitt Romney utilized shell companies in two offshore tax havens to help eligible investors avoid paying U.S. taxes, federal and state records show. Romney gained no personal tax benefit from the legal operations in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. But aides to the Republican presidential hopeful and former colleagues acknowledged that the tax-friendly jurisdictions helped attract billions of additional investment dollars to Romney's former company, Bain Capital, and thus boosted profits for Romney and his partners.
Romney has based his White House bid, in part, on the skills he learned as co-founder and chief of Bain Capital, one of the nation's most successful private equity groups. His campaign cites his record while governor of Massachusetts of closing state tax loopholes; his involvement with foreign tax havens had not previously come to light.
In the Cayman Islands, Romney was listed as a general partner and personally invested in BCIP Associates III Cayman, a private equity fund that is registered at a post office box on Grand Cayman Island and that indirectly buys equity in U.S. companies. The arrangement shields foreign investors from U.S. taxes they would pay for investing in U.S. companies.
Romney still retains an investment in the Cayman fund through a trust. Campaign disclosure forms show the investment paid him more than $1 million last year in dividends, interest and capital gains.
In Bermuda, Romney served as president and sole shareholder for four years of Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors Ltd. It funneled money into Bain Capital's Sankaty family of hedge funds, which invest in bonds and other debt issued by corporations, as well as bank loans. Like thousands of similar financial entities, Sankaty maintains no office or staff in Bermuda. Its only presence consists of a nameplate at a lawyer's office in downtown Hamilton, capital of the British island territory...[Open in new window]
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Mythology is interesting.
Here's a couple of mythological figures we've all heard about a lot these past few decades: the 'Welfare Queen' and the 'anti-war protester who spit on returning vets.'
Did either ever really exist except in Rambo movies or the fevered imaginations of Ronald Reagan's speech writers?
Not likely.
But people like Mitt certainly do exist & they're the ones screwing the working classes on their taxes.
The history of the 'conservative movement' (make diarrhea sound) is the history of tax cheating by the uber-wealthy.
Read David Cay Johnston's PERFECTLY LEGAL ([Open in new window] ) sometime. It'll frost your cookies.
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By Bob Drogin, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 17, 2007
BOSTON -- Second of two parts
While in private business, Mitt Romney utilized shell companies in two offshore tax havens to help eligible investors avoid paying U.S. taxes, federal and state records show. Romney gained no personal tax benefit from the legal operations in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. But aides to the Republican presidential hopeful and former colleagues acknowledged that the tax-friendly jurisdictions helped attract billions of additional investment dollars to Romney's former company, Bain Capital, and thus boosted profits for Romney and his partners.
Romney has based his White House bid, in part, on the skills he learned as co-founder and chief of Bain Capital, one of the nation's most successful private equity groups. His campaign cites his record while governor of Massachusetts of closing state tax loopholes; his involvement with foreign tax havens had not previously come to light.
In the Cayman Islands, Romney was listed as a general partner and personally invested in BCIP Associates III Cayman, a private equity fund that is registered at a post office box on Grand Cayman Island and that indirectly buys equity in U.S. companies. The arrangement shields foreign investors from U.S. taxes they would pay for investing in U.S. companies.
Romney still retains an investment in the Cayman fund through a trust. Campaign disclosure forms show the investment paid him more than $1 million last year in dividends, interest and capital gains.
In Bermuda, Romney served as president and sole shareholder for four years of Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors Ltd. It funneled money into Bain Capital's Sankaty family of hedge funds, which invest in bonds and other debt issued by corporations, as well as bank loans. Like thousands of similar financial entities, Sankaty maintains no office or staff in Bermuda. Its only presence consists of a nameplate at a lawyer's office in downtown Hamilton, capital of the British island territory...[Open in new window]
*
Mythology is interesting.
Here's a couple of mythological figures we've all heard about a lot these past few decades: the 'Welfare Queen' and the 'anti-war protester who spit on returning vets.'
Did either ever really exist except in Rambo movies or the fevered imaginations of Ronald Reagan's speech writers?
Not likely.
But people like Mitt certainly do exist & they're the ones screwing the working classes on their taxes.
The history of the 'conservative movement' (make diarrhea sound) is the history of tax cheating by the uber-wealthy.
Read David Cay Johnston's PERFECTLY LEGAL ([Open in new window] ) sometime. It'll frost your cookies.
*
posted by Dan at 9:21 AM
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