ATION WORLD MORE YOU ARE HERE: LAT Home→Collections→Presidential Candidates Second of two parts Island tax havens factor into Romneys business success December 17, 2007|Bob Drogin | Times Staff Writer Email Share BOSTON — 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 Romneys 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 nations 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. 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 Capitals 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 lawyers office in downtown Hamilton, capital of the British island territory. Its just a mail drop, essentially, said Marc B. Wolpow, who worked with Romney for nine years at Bain Capital and who set up Sankaty Ltd. in October 1997 without ever visiting Bermuda. Theres no one doing any work down there other than lawyers. Investing through whats known as a blocker corporation in Bermuda protects tax-exempt American institutions, such as pension plans, hospitals and university endowments, from paying a 35% tax on what the Internal Revenue Service calls unrelated business income from domestic hedge funds that invest in debt, experts say. Kevin Madden, Romneys campaign spokesman, said there was nothing improper about the Bermuda arrangement, or in Romneys investment in the Cayman fund. In neither case, Madden said, did Romney gain the ability to defer or avoid paying U.S. taxes. I would disagree that these could be described as tax loopholes, he said. These are perfectly normal and perfectly legal arrangements that American companies put together to be successful in the market. The Cayman fund is registered at P.O. Box 908GT on Grand Cayman Island, corporate records show. Like the Bermuda company, it maintains no office or staff overseas. Romney first purchased a 3.25% share of the Cayman fund, and was listed as a general partner (passive) before his retirement from Bain Capital in late 2001, records show. He put his financial assets into a blind trust in January 2003, when he took office as Massachusetts governor. Brad Malt, who controls Romneys financial trust, said Bain Capital organized the Cayman fund to attract money from foreign institutional investors. This is not Mitt trying to do something strange, he said. This is Bain trying to raise some number of billions from investors around the world. The privately held Cayman fund does not disclose its total investment pool. But Securities and Exchange Commission records show it has invested through a Delaware partnership in a California-based network of healthcare centers, a Texas real estate group, a New Jersey phosphate manufacturer and numerous other companies. Romney is the wealthiest candidate running for president, with a personal fortune of up to $250 million, according to financial disclosure forms he filed in August. His financial trust retains investments in at least 32 Bain and Sankaty equity, hedge and debt funds, among other assets, the documents disclosed. Under his retirement agreement, Romney retains a share of the profits at Bain Capital, as well as the right to make new investments in Bain funds through his trust, until February 2009. Malt said he had repeatedly increased Romneys stake in the Cayman fund since 2003. He said he was unaware of the specific figures, but added that he knew he wrote a lot of checks, and that it paid a return of 20% to 30% a year.
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 23:18:59 +0000
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