It really is hard to believe, but Romney appears to have given conflicting information regarding the Damon Corporation and his involvement in the reporting of the fraud.
In 1989, Bain Capital purchased controlling interest in Damon Corp., a medical testing company located in Needham, Massachusetts.
During the time that Bain held its ownership of the company, Mitt Romney personally sat on the Board of Directors. And during that same period, Damon Corp. was busy submitting fraudulent reimbursement claims to Medicare to the tune of millions of dollars charged for unnecessary blood tests.
According to federal government prosecutors, Damon was misleading physicians into ordering unnecessary blood tests, assuring the doctors that the testing would be covered by Medicare.
By the time Damon Corp. pleaded guilty to defrauding the United States Government of $25 million—and paid a total of $119 million in what was, at that time, the largest penalty of its kind in Massachusetts history—Bain was long gone having sold the company in 1993 to Corning, Inc.
Inasmuch as neither Romney nor Bain was ever implicated in the fraud, it would be reasonable to conclude that while the illegal activity was going on under Mr. Romney’s nose, Romney would, himself, bear only some responsibility for perhaps not being as on top of things as one might hope for a company’s director to be.
But, according to Romney, such a conclusion would be wrong.
When Mitt Romney was confronted with the matter during his campaign to become the Governor of Massachusetts, Romney acknowledged that he didhave some awareness of the funky things going on at Damon.
According to The Deseret News-
More than a decade later, when Romney was in pursuit of the Massachusetts governorship, his Democratic opponent Shannon O’Brien accused him of lax oversight at Damon and failing to report the fraud.
Romney replied that he had helped uncover the illegal activity at Damon, asking the board’s lawyers to investigate. As a result, he said, the board took “corrective action” before selling the company in 1993 to Corning Inc.
So, then, the future Governor and candidate for his party’s nomination to run for the presidency, did fulfill his obligation as a great American and did report the fraud to the proper authorities, right?
Apparently not. Continue reading at Forbes.com
Oh, shut up. It’s his turn [stamping my feet and pouting].
If Newt has “baggage”, the Romney has an Airbus cargo hold to explain. I was thinking that the Dems won’t go after Newt and Freddie Mac, because he probably can expose lots and lots of stuff about the Dems, too.
I have noticed on other blogs, by the way, that the Romneybots are out in droves with scare tactics “If we get Newt as the nominee, I fear for the Republic” or “Newt is a disaster. I won’t go to the polls in November” and such nonsense. You can tell because it’s the same / similar meme, with posting names that are new or obviously silly.
Have you noticed too that they’re making the same arguments against Newt that they made against Palin:
–The press will paint him [insert appropriate insult]
–He’s too divisive/will alienate independents
–The dem base is demoralized, but Newt will motivate them to GOTV
–He has made too many enemies in the GOP and won’t be able to lead even if elected
It’s soooo transparent.
Excellent, excellent points. I think I’ve even heard the “No executive experience” one, too. Haven’t heard the “beauty queen” one yet…
http://images.icanhascheezburger.com/completestore/2008/10/28/128696857113581716.jpg
This was already a “sep’d at birth?” I thought we just figured this out yesterday. Good one, Barn.