Mitt, Tagg and the Schemers
by digby
One of the problems with aristocracy has always been that succeeding generations of nobles tend to be, shall we say, a little less astute than their forebears. Sometimes they are just less ethical. Either way, this could be a problem for one of our current nobles:
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.
In an exclusive interview with ThinkProgress, Tagg Romney confirmed their business relationship, but falsely claimed that the men were cleared of any wrongdoing associated with the Ponzi scheme. Tagg Romney told ThinkProgress that his three partners collected about $15,000 from their involvement in the Ponzi scheme. Court documents obtained by ThinkProgress show that the legal proceedings are ongoing and the men made over $1.6 million selling fraudulent CDs to investors.
Read on at Think Progress for the details. Mitt's right in the middle of this. And I think the most damning thing about it is the fact that this happened in 2009. He knew he was running for president again and this was long after the meltdown, where they could have hidden their theft in the maelstrom. (And you have to love the fact that some of the principles were also involved in the notorious Allen Stanford Ponzi scheme. Doh.)
But then Mitt's a certified Master of the Universe so it's not surprising that he would believe that he's immune from criticism for his ill-gotten gains or the company he keeps. (But then the allegedly anti-Wall Street Tea Party is far more upset about his lack of consistent social conservatism than they are about the fact that he's one of the malefactors of great wealth, so he's probably right.)
This scheme may be too complicated to hurt him in the election. This is the sort of scandal that takes dogged determination by political operatives and cooperation from the mainstream press to really gain traction, and that's a very particular Republican party specialty. But you never know. This looks like it might just be sloppy enough to get somebody's attention. And it couldn't have happened at more inauspicious time. It's rare in America that anyone really cares if the rich are stealing, but right now they do. And Mitt is very, very rich.
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