Romney & Son Investigated for 8 Billion Ponzi Scheme -Stanford????

[malaise]

http://www.politicolnews.com/romney-son-investigated-for-8-billion-ponzi-scheme/#ixzz25YXHdfjK
<snip>
Mitt Romney and his son Tagg Romney have been implicated in a 8.5 billion dollar ponzi scheme with Wall Street investors Allen Stanford and James M. Davis.

The pair are not cleared including their three partners in a court document verified, ongoing legal proceeding involving selling fraudulent CD’s to potential investors.

The statement of fact, includes SIBL, Stanford International Bank, SGC Stanford Capital Management and the associates R. Allen Stanford, ( Allen Stanford) and James M. Davis stole money from investors through fraud. The group bilked investors by diverting funds to their own lifestyles through bonus money, salaries and compensation packages.


Mitt Romney and Son Tagg in 2008 invested in Allen Stanford’s ponzi scheme to the tune of 10 million dollars initially in Solamere Capital a seed investment and received 1 million in returns. The seed money was said to come from Ann Romney’s personal family trust account that is supposedly a Blind Trust.
-------------
Anything else on this? I saw this here yesterday with few comments

[flamingdem]

1. Will Mitt's next speech

be broadcast from a county jail?

[jberryhill]

2. Specifically what did Mitt and son do?

What is it they are alleged to have done?

The OP doesn't say.

The statements of fact are:

1. "Mitt Romney and his son Tagg Romney have been implicated in a 8.5 billion dollar ponzi scheme"

"Implicated" in what way? As bilked investors? As people running it?

2. "The pair are not cleared"

Court proceedings don't "clear" anyone. One is either found guilty or not guilty. Courts do not deem anyone "innocent".

3. "Mitt Romney and Son Tagg in 2008 invested in Allen Stanford’s ponzi scheme to the tune of 10 million dollars initially in Solamere Capital a seed investment and received 1 million in returns."

So they put in 10 and got back 1. Sounds like a loss of 9. Yes, a lot of people lost money in Stanford's ponzi scheme. That's what makes it a ponzi scheme.

The remainder of the article is so hopelessly written that it is difficult to comprehend, e.g.:

"Tagg Romney joined in to help Solamere Capital company started after the ponzi scheme was discovered and is located in Charlotte, North Carolina with three other prominent brokers."

WTF is that sentence even trying to say?

[KoKo]

7. There's more info in "Politico" article with Articles & from Think Progress...Here's a snip:

Tagg Romney is quoted as saying he was proud of his investment with Solamere now run by former executives of Stanford, ” They’re friends of ours, they used the Solamere name, we own a piece of them”. “We helped them get started”

Despite claims by Tagg and Mitt Romney the investigation is still “ongoing” and the profits from Stanford and Solemere were unreported by Tagg Romney. He also did possess a minority stake in the business with Spencer Zwick and Eric Scheuermann.

Spencer Zwich is Mitt Romney’s Chief Fundraiser. Investors in Stanford have not recovered their money, and the assets are still in receivership and frozen until the case is resolved. A total of 8.5 billion dollars is still unaccounted for and the billion dollar Ponzi scheme lays at Mitt Romney’s feet for his and his son’s investment partners who were all involved.

Read more: http://www.politicolnews.com/romney-son-investigated-for-8-billion-ponzi-scheme/#ixzz25beDmXIf


AND THIS from "Crooks & Liars" based on a "Think Progress Report that is linked in the POLITICO article above::"

Ponzi schemes like the Stanford scheme happen all the time. Salesmen go out and sell fake investments they claim are safe -- Certificates of Deposit in this case. But the money is really invested in illiquid risky investments, and so to feed the cash beast, they have to go out and find more cash to keep the scheme going. Eventually it collapses, investors end up with nothing, and the only ones who seem to benefit are the salesmen who collect their commissions and move on.

This is why Lee Fang's investigative report for Think Progress is so devastating to Mitt Romney. Or at least, it should be.

Let's start with this:

Mitt Romney, his son Tagg, and Romney’s chief fundraiser, Spencer Zwick, have extensive financial and political ties to three men who allegedly participated in an $8.5 billion Ponzi scheme. A few months after the Ponzi scheme collapsed, a firm financed by Mitt Romney and run by his son and chief fundraiser partnered with the three men and created a new “wealth management business” as a subsidiary.

That graphic at the top illustrates all of the ties Romney has with these former Stanford Capital salesmen. But here is a bit more detail:

After news of the Ponzi scheme precipitated the collapse of Stanford in 2009, Taggpartnered with several of Stanford’s North Carolina executives to start a firm called Solamere Advisors. At least three prominent brokers who had worked for Stanford — Tim Bambauer, Deems May, and Brandon Phillips — joined Tagg to help run Solamere Advisors, a wealth management business located in Charlotte, North Carolina. “We are excited to be associated with such a highly capable group of financial advisors with a proven track record of meeting the needs of their clients throughout the Southeast,” said Tagg in a press release announcing Solamere Advisors, which borrows its the name from its parent company, Solamere Capital.

So to review, we have Mitt Romney coughing up $10 million to help start a firm that hired three brokers who sold bogus CDs for Stanford Financial and made some decent money on the deal, too. Not only that, but Spencer Zwick the lead fundraiser for Romney's campaign is a principal in the Solamere Capital firm along with these Stanford brokers. Spencer Zwick does business as SJZ, LLC, and has been paid over $2 million in fees by the Romney campaign.

[jberryhill]

9. I still need help

Okay, so what I gather from this is that Mitt and Tagg invested in a pyramid scheme.

The pyramid scheme employed salesmen.

After the pyramid scheme fell apart, Tagg started another company with the salesmen.

Is that the basic outline?

[KoKo]

11. And how are the "salesmen" envolved in the Romney Campaign...

You're getting close. I tried to bold the relevant parts but you'd need to read the articles linked at Politico from Think Progress, Crooks & Liars, etc. and know something about the Sanford scandal, Ponzi schemes and what went on then and how Romney has trashed Dodd/Frank because it had some collars on Ponzi...etc.

It should have legs....but, unfortunately it's hard for average folks to wrap their minds around the terrible financial scandals and the networks that are still in place for more corruption.

but, I did understand your confusion about the OP and that's why I dug back through the articles.

[jberryhill]

18. "You're getting close."

Well I don't know if I'm an "average person" or not.

But how about spitting it out and saying - what did the Romneys do?

That would make it a lot easier for anyone to wrap their minds around it.

[hedda_foil]

13. It's not from Politico but a look-alike called POLITICOL.

Sorry for the all caps but in lower-case, it's easy for them to disguise or hide the final "l" so it seems to disappear. I'm getting a strong vibe that this may be another example of Rove's habit of handing true (and damming) stories to a dubious source like the jail-bird author of "Favorite Son" in 2000. Or a setup to take down a media enemy (aka Dan Rather).

Is anybody else wondering where this site came from?

[KoKo]

15. "Politcol" is legit and seems Dem/Progressive...Here:

You are correct about the "l" being blocked out. Also the spelling of POLITICOL...
I checked it out and this is their BLOG ROLL. Near as I can find they might be affiliated with a Swedish Group "http://blog.paper.li/"

They seem to have a mission to report articles or news that doesn't get MSM attention to give the articles or news a wider viewership.

None of their articles seem to slant towards anything Republican. Perhaps our more internet savvy techies here can find out who owns the website, though.

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[jberryhill]

17. The writing is awful, that's for sure

All I get from this is that the Romneys invested money in a pyramid scam, and later hired salesmen who worked for the scammer.

That doesn't add up to much.

First of all, to be "implicated" in a pyramid scam means.... what? That they put money in? Yes, lots of people put money in. And lost it. There is not a single fact noted which suggests that the Romneys were running the scam or aware it was a scam.

The same goes for the salesmen. If you are running a scam, you don't let everyone in on it. That's what makes it a scam. Madoff had staff working for him who were astounded to find out he was running a scam.

Where there is smoke, there may be fire, but it shouldn't be that hard for someone who is trying to point out the fire to do so using the English language in a way that makes it clear.

[KoKo]

19. Agree...but then "Trig Romney" hired the same people who did the Ponzi...

That's where I think the dirty stuff comes in if you read the other links and not just the OP..

[jberryhill]

23. Why weren't they indicted?

If they were running it, why weren't they the ones prosecuted for it?

I don't have an opinion, since if there isn't a cohesive treatment of this story, it has the feel of one of those "here's a bunch of facts, you supply the inferences" kind of thing.

But if some guy sold me on a scam, and I was looking for a salesman after the scam fell apart, I'd consider hiring that guy.

[KoKo]

26. Well....there you have it....Crime Pays...Hire the Ponzi Schemer's salespeople...

and you will be golden.

[jberryhill]

27. Note what I said above

Salespeople are salespeople.

Mad off had people working for him who were shocked to find out he was running a scam.

You are saying that these people were criminals. Did the Stanford prosecutors just lose the files on these guys or what?

If I hire you to take a box from my office to some address, are you a criminal?

I think the answer is going to depend on whether you knew what was in the box.

[KoKo]

28. The articles I read said these people did know about the Ponzi.

You need to go back to the "Think Progress Report" at the link.

[jberryhill]

30. Try reading the thread so far

I read it. It does not paint a coherent picture.

This sounds a lot like Whitewater. A bunch of shady looking stuff and not enough glue holding it together yet.

Will you answer my question about why they were not indicted, or not?

[global1]

3. Has Anyone In The MSM Confronted Rmoney Or His.....

campaign people on this yet?

[upi402]

32. crickets

But not sure as I don't watch the MSM anymore. It rots the brain.

[goclark]

4. Nothing Mittmafia did/does would

surprise me...
The problem is.... can we catch him?

[tanyev]

5. Ann's already addressed this.

"We've given all you people need to know and understand about our financial situation and about how we live our life."

[russspeakeasy]

6. Damn, I would like to see them in orange jumpsuits.

[KoKo]

8. This needs to get legs....revisited from 2011 and should pop now!

We Dems should use this...unfortunately we have our own scandals with John Corzine's problems with MF Global...(Corzine a big Bundler for Obama) but this is in the Romney family and we Dems need to make an issue out of it, even if we have our own financial scandals, none of them tie into Obama the way this one ties into the Romney family.

[malaise]

16. Agreed - it was here yesterday but what with Day one of the convention

it didn't get too much attention

[Baitball Blogger]

10. We need to vote Obama in, if for no other reason, to stop the Romney crime spree.

If Romney gets elected, he'll find a way to hush those investigations.

[KoKo]

12. I've wondered if the Romney boys weren't somehow like the Bush Brothers...

and surely given their father's financial uses of Bain Capital.. one wonders what they all do for a living.

[Baitball Blogger]

14. They are a tight and entitled group.

When you reach that level of access to wealth, I imagine you find ways of making money without breaking a sweat.

[upi402]

33. He hasn't done much along those lines yet.

Keeping powder dry??? Maybe. Hope so!

[LiberalAndProud]

20. I noticed this yesterday, too.

I am skeptical as to whether the investigation will end in prosecution. I read the story and am still uncertain as to exactly who is investigating who.

Does the story have legs? Possibly in the same sense that Whitewater did ... it will surely be relevant if Romney is elected. or maybe not. The outcome of the Arpaio investigation by our justice department has shaken my confidence in our legal structures, I'm afraid.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2012/09/05/protesters-question-decision-not-to-charge-sheriff-joe-arpaio/
It's been five days since federal prosecutors announced they closed the criminal investigation into Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his office, and protesters are demanding answers from the US Attorney's Office.

His critics want to know why.

The press release was issued Friday at 5 p.m., just before a holiday weekend. Now Tuesday, they're still not talking about why the investigation is closed.

Protesters from the Citizens for a Better Arizona were turned away from the US Attorneys Office Tuesday morning. The group is demanding answers after the feds dropped their abuse of power investigation into Sheriff Arpaio.

[malaise]

22. WTF

Who is closing the abuse of power investigation into Arpaio?

[LiberalAndProud]

25. I know. I almost cried when I read it.

Some days are more Sisyphean than others.

[jberryhill]

24. Yeah... Whitewater...

I was looking for an analogy of how this thing feels as has this far been coherently explained.

Lots of interesting bits and pieces, but no compelling narrative.

[KoKo]

29. Well...given that the Criminal Banksters only had to pay "fines" I'd say

your thoughts of justice for this are about the same as the inaction we've seen so far with the Banksters on Wall Street who "brought down the financial system" that we the taxpayers are going to be paying off for many long years with a reduction of our lifestyle and our childrens.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

21. For starters, Willard should not have access to a blind trust

This could get good. But I hope it gets good FAST.

[KoKo]

31. Yep...right there. A Blind trust should stay Blind.

But, then...that's what we have been told to believe. It's "different" for some folks.