As reported here and here several weeks ago, we reported that Romney would certainly be disqualified or discredited as a Presidential candidate for the 2012 election due to fraud and other crimes against the American Taxpayer and the US Government.
As far back as 2009, nearly concurrent with the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scandal, the GOP knew, beyond any doubt, that Mitt Romney was seriously involved with a Ponzi scheme, to the tune of $8.5 BILLION dollars.
In February of 2009, the Washington Post revealed that the SEC was alleging $8 Billion in savings fraud by Allen Stanford AND HIS COLLEAGUES, read Mitt Romney and Son, of lying about investments and CDs in a Ponzi scheme concerning staggering amounts of investor’s money, partnerships in which they invested upon collapse of the fraud.
“”We are alleging a fraud of shocking magnitude that has spread its tentacles throughout the world,” Rose Romero, director of the SEC’s Fort Worth office, said in a statement.”
Despite the actions of the SEC in this case,
“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.”
So what do we know?
We know that Stanford has a PAC which has contributed large amounts of money to lawmakers annually.
We know that over $400,000 of that money was tied directly into the Madoff Ponzi scandal.
We know that one is only sentenced if FOUND GUILTY:
“Sentencing has been set for June 14, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. in Courtroom 8A before Judge Hittner. Stanford faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years for the count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, each count of wire and mail fraud, and the count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and five years for the count of conspiracy to obstruct an SEC investigation and the count of obstruction of an SEC investigation.”
Victims of this Ponzi scheme have been asked to fill out ‘Victim Impact Statement/Financial Crime’ and have not, as yet, received compensation or restoration of fraudulently stolen funds.
We know that Romney lied about the specifics of the Stanford Fraud and still created a joint ‘wealth management system’ with criminals
“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.”
Whereas the ‘screwing’ those ‘poor guys took’ actually was court ordered forfeiture:
“According to the indictment, which also seeks forfeiture from all the defendants (18 U.S.C. §§981(a)(1)(c) and 982(a)(1)), Stanford and his co-defendants engaged in a scheme to defraud investors who purchased approximately $7 billion in certificates of deposit administered by Stanford International Bank Ltd. (SIBL), an offshore bank controlled by Stanford and located on the island of Antigua. Stanford and his co-defendants allegedly misused and misappropriated most of those investor assets, including diverting more than $1.6 billion into undisclosed personal loans to Stanford himself, while misrepresenting to investors SIBL’s financial condition, its investment strategy and the extent of its regulatory oversight by Antiguan authorities.
“Also according to the indictment, Stanford, Pendergest-Holt and King conspired to conceal the fraud from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in order to fend off an SEC investigation. King allegedly provided Stanford and others with confidential information that he had received from an official SEC inquiry into a possible fraud on investors by SIBL so that additional false representations concerning SIBL’s financial health and Antiguan regulatory oversight could be made. In addition, Stanford, Pendergest-Holt and others allegedly agreed that Pendergest-Holt would provide false information to the SEC about the true value of SIBL’s investment portfolio. See copy of Indictment below.”
We know that the charges are many and serious:
Background: On June 19, 2009, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas unsealed a 21-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury on June 18, 2009, against defendants Robert Allen Stanford, Laura Pendergest-Holt, Gilberto Lopez, Mark Kuhrt, and Leroy King, charging each with one count of conspiracy to commit mail, wire and securities fraud (Count 1: 18 U.S.C. § 371); seven counts of wire fraud (Count 2: 18 U.S.C. § 1343); ten counts of mail fraud (Counts 9-18: 18 U.S.C.§ 1341), and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering (Count 21: 18 U.S.C. §1956(h)) stemming from a $7 billion investment fraud scheme. The indictment also charges Stanford, Pendergest-Holt and King with one count of conspiracy to obstruct a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation (Count 19: 18 U.S.C. §371) and one count of obstruction of an SEC investigation (Count 20: 18 U.S.C.§1505).
We know that Romney has no intention of protecting citizens and investors from further Ponzi schemes:
“The revelation about Romney’s ties to the Stanford ponzi scheme unmask the risks associated with removing new investor protections. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform law, a reform Romney says he will repeal if he wins the presidency, attempts to address future Ponzi schemes by enacting new protections for whistleblowers to alert authorities when they find evidence of fraud. The law also creates a new Investor Advocate and Investor Advisory Committee within the Securities and Exchange Commission to detect and investigate future Ponzi schemes.”
As early as 2009, with the scandal of a major PAC being involved with leading Republican Mitt Romney, an honest vetting by the GOP would certainly have disqualified him from GOP support for the Presidential elections. However, if the GOP, who in 2008 adopted the identical platform as the Democratic Party reworded, WANTED to throw the election to Barack Obama, they could hardly do more to guarantee it for 2012.
As Crooks and Liars states:
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.
Since sentencing of the first convict begins in June of 2012, it is guaranteed to blow up as a major campaign issue leading into August, September and November of this year, and will affect the GOP campaigns.
The criminal fraud not only of Madoff and Stanford, but of the major banks and Wall Street firms has so overwhelmed the economy of this country that voters will be hard pressed to give the office to one so deeply connected to these evils.
