Commentary By Ron Beasley
Mitt Romney didn't go to Italy on his European adventure and there is good reason for that - he wouldn't have been welcomed.
That's because Bain Capital, under Romney as chief executive officer, made about $1 billion in a leveraged buyout 12 years ago that remains controversial in Italy to this day. Bain was part of a group that bought a telephone-directory company from the Italian government and then sold it about two years later, at the peak of the technology bubble, for about 25 times what it paid.
Bain funneled profits through subsidiaries in Luxembourg, a common corporate strategy for avoiding income taxes in other European countries, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg News. The buyer, Italy's biggest telephone company, now has a total market value less than what it paid Bain and other investors for the directory business.
In Italy, the deals have spurred at least three books, separate legal and regulatory probes and newspaper columns alleging investors made a fortune at the expense of Italian taxpayers. Boston-based Bain wasn't a subject of the inquiries, which didn't result in any charges.
Romney himself was heavily involved in the deal and probably made about 50 million dollars on the deal. Bain and Romney may have been winners but the Italian government and Italian investors were not.
Romney was heavily involved in a Bain deal in 2000? How can that be when he swears up and down he had nothing at all to do with any Bain business after February 1999?
ReplyDeleteThey just went Priebus all over Romney.