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Post-election Romney and Bain WILL Face a Federal Corruption and Perjury Hearing in Delaware for eToys Bankruptcy — The Emergency Motion was withheld from the public docket 10/24-11/7

Exactly ten days ago, this column reported on a Delaware bankruptcy court’s failure to enter an Emergency Motion into the public docket that included Bain Capital and Romney operative’s perjury and corruption in the eToys bankruptcy case. At the time it appeared the judge was protecting Romney and Bain Capital by suppressing the Motion in expectation he would win the election and have the Motion tossed out of court leading to the question; “is Romney’s main impetus for seeking the White House to appoint an Attorney General who will guarantee that all charges against him will go away?” Well now that he lost the election, it appears the allegation had merit because on November 7, the day after his crushing defeat, the Delaware bankruptcy court judge entered the motion into the public docket and scheduled a hearing for December 4, 2012; all on the same day.

It was a victory for the whistleblower and eToys investors, and incriminating for the Delaware court and Willard Romney because although the judge received the Emergency Motion on October 24^th, it was withheld from the public docket until after it was clear Romney lost the election and would not be appointing an attorney general to drop the case.  According to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 79 says when a motion is received by the court, “The clerk must keep a record known as the civil docket, and must enter each civil action in the docket and assign consecutive file numbers, which must be noted in the docket where the first entry of the action is made.” Instead of putting the Emergency Motion into the public docket immediately when it was received, it was held up until the day after the election and gives the very believable appearance the court was waiting for election results before either acting on the Motion according to the law, or letting it languish until Romney appointed a friendly attorney general.

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The Real Romney - Another secret recording shows what Romney really thinks about minorities, birth control, and public assistance.

In a new recording of a conference call that took place yesterday, Romney told his contributors that Obama’s strategy was to “focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government, and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote.” These gifts, Romney lamented, “add up to trillions of dollars” and were delivered to “targeted groups,” “especially the African-American community, the Hispanic community and young people”

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Mitt Romney’s Campaign Canceled Staffers Credit Cards Tuesday Night - Before many of them even got home.

The next time you have the misfortune of hearing a Wall Street titan or other one-percenter whine about how their trickle-down contributions are not appreciated by the masses remember this tidbit, courtesy of Garrett Haake at NBC:

From the moment Mitt Romney stepped off stage Tuesday night, having just delivered a brief concession speech he wrote only that evening, the massive infrastructure surrounding his campaign quickly began to disassemble itself.

Aides taking cabs home late that night got rude awakenings when they found the credit cards linked to the campaign no longer worked.

In case you are wondering, this did not have to happen. The Mitt Romney for President entity does not end with Romney’s Tuesday night loss. There are papers to be filed with various federal commissions and bills to be paid ….

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Stay classy Romney.

Romney’s Ohio “Storm Relief” Photo-Op, Complete With “Donations” His Campaign Bought

Mitt Romney was really concerned that his “Storm Relief Event” in Kettering, Ohio yesterday would look like a dud, so he and his team stocked their donation tables with $5,000 worth of supplies at Walmart. The props, according to Buzzfeed’s McKay Coppins, were things like granola bars, canned food, and diapers which were strategically placed to make sure that the photographs taken at Romney’s “Storm Relief” campaign didn’t a show very un-busy, un-stocked relief table (what else do you expect when you give people short notice to donate their canned goods?). But … but … look at how pretty all those fake donations look: 

And apparently, the event was so manufactured that they allowed supporters to use the donations which were bought by the campaign, to donate back to the campaign.  According to Coppins: 

Empty-handed supporters pled for entrance, with one woman asking, “What if we dropped off our donations up front?”

The volunteer gestured toward a pile of groceries conveniently stacked near the candidate. “Just grab something,” he said.

Two teenage boys retrieved a jar of peanut butter each, and got in line. When it was their turn, they handed their “donations” to Romney. He took them, smiled, and offered an earnest “Thank you.”

Fine. Maybe it doesn’t matter who bought the goods as long as they all went to people in need. “The campaign confirmed that it ‘did donate supplies to the relief effort,’ but would not specify how much it spent,” reported Coppins. 

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Romney Avoids Taxes via Loophole Cutting Mormon Donations

In 1997, Congress cracked down on a popular tax shelter that allowed rich people to take advantage of the exempt status of charities without actually giving away much money.

Individuals who had already set up these vehicles were allowed to keep them. That included Mitt Romney, then the chief executive officer of Bain Capital, who had just established such an arrangement in June 1996.

The charitable remainder unitrust, as it is known, is one of several strategies Romney has adopted over his career to reduce his tax bill. While Romney’s tax avoidance is legal and common among high-net-worth individuals, it has become an issue in the campaign. President Barack Obama attacked him in their second debate for paying “lower tax rates than somebody who makes a lot less.”

In this instance, Romney used the tax-exempt status of a charity — the Mormon Church, according to a 2007 filing — to defer taxes for more than 15 years. At the same time he is benefitting, the trust will probably leave the church with less than what current law requires, according to tax returns obtained by Bloomberg this month through a Freedom of Information Act request.

In general, charities don’t owe capital gains taxes when they sell assets for a profit. Trusts like Romney’s permit funders to benefit from that tax-free treatment, said Jonathan Blattmachr, a trusts and estates lawyer who set up hundreds of such vehicles in the 1990s.

“The main benefit from a charitable remainder trust is the renting from your favorite charity of its exemption from taxation,” Blattmachr said. Despite the name, giving a gift or getting a charitable deduction “is just a throwaway,” he said. “I used to structure them so the value dedicated to charity was as close to zero as possible without being zero.”

When individuals fund a charitable remainder unitrust, or “CRUT,” they defer capital gains taxes on any profit from the sale of the assets, and receive a small upfront charitable deduction and a stream of yearly cash payments.

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Romney campaign “hindering” and “impeding” Hurricane Sandy relief

Coming on the heels of the Romney campaign apparently confirming Mitt Romney’s earlier promise to shut down FEMA and move its duties to the states, the news that Team Romney’s token “hurricane relief” effort is making things worse for disaster relief agencies is yet another example of how everything Mitt Romney touches – even disasters – end up a disaster.

Yesterday we learned via ABC’s Emily Friedman that Romney campaign was pitching in and gathering supplies to donate for hurricane relief:

All well and good except, of course, that it’s the opposite of what disaster relief experts advise you to do.  In fact, they warn that such efforts actually “hinder” relief.  Had the Romney campaign bothered reading the Red Cross Web site to see WHAT was needed, or even simply asked someone at the Red Cross,they’d have known this.

And I quote from the Red Cross Web site:

Unfortunately, due to logistical constraints the Red Cross does not accept or solicit individual donations or collections of items. Items such as collected food, used clothing and shoes must be sorted, cleaned, repackaged and transported which impedes the valuable resources of money, time, and personnel.

It “impedes” relief efforts, it doesn’t help.  The Red Cross prefers money because it’s far easier to handle, and can be spent where it’s most needed and on what is most needed.

Why didn’t the Romney campaign contact the Red Cross?  Unless their goal was not to actually help people affected by Hurricane Sandy, but rather to use yet another national tragedy as an “opportunity.”

There’s that devastating word again: “opportunity.”

A real life example of good intentions gone wrong: The Joplin, MO tornado of May 22, 2011.

Look at what the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, under Republican Governor Mitch Daniels, had to say about the damage caused by people donating goods instead of money:

The Indiana Department of Homeland Security has been asked to spread the word that unsolicited goods and volunteers are hindering the effectiveness of response and recovery efforts in Joplin, Missouri.

Emergency responders in Missouri say that critical resources and personnel in the affected area are being redirected from the important work of response and relief to managing what has become a deluge of unneeded donated items and independent volunteers.

The single best way to help disaster survivors is with a cash donation to a legitimate relief agency, such as the American Red Cross, operating in the area.

And putting aside for a moment the Romney campaign’s intent, they botched it either way.  During a national crisis the Romney campaign didn’t have its act together enough to avoid sending the wrong signal to the American people.  They sent the message that Americans should collect relief supplies, and that message will now hinder Hurricane Sandy relief.

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