|
Island tax havens factor into
Romney's business success
Bob Drogin
LA
Times
Tuesday December 18, 2007
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.
(Article continues below)
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.
Full
article here.
|
INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
|
|
