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You are here: Home / Previous employers

Previous employers

by Kay|  April 24, 20122:25 pm| 38 Comments

This post is in: Rumormongering

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I didn’t even know Mitt Romney had a job to quit. I was wondering what he had been up to since his single term as governor then running for President for years and years, but I understand we’re in the process of vetting the incumbent President so we’re busy with that.

I’m going to have to start reading the Boston Globe for all things Romney:

Turns out, the former Wal-Mart CEO who helped shut down an investigation of bribery by store officials in Mexico is an operating partner at a private equity fund started by Mitt Romney, his eldest son and his campaign finance director.
H. Lee Scott Jr. became an operating partner at the Romney fund, Solamere Capital, eight months after he left Wal-Mart in 2009. Solamere’s partners and investors include major Romney campaign donors and staffers. Romney was a senior adviser and the first investor in the fund, putting up $10 million.
The Times reported that Scott rebuked internal investigators for being too agressive in uncovering bribery by store officials in Mexico. The investigators allegedly found credible evidence that some $24 million in bribes allowed the store to dominate the market in Mexico, but Scott and others hushed up the investigation until the Times disclosed it Sunday.
The link was first reported by the Boston Globe, where I did some extensive reporting on the $250 million private equity fund last fall. Romney resigned from his role in advising the fund when he announced his run for president, but his son and his campaign finance director, Spencer Zwick, remain managing partners. Scott is still an operating partner.
When Scott joined the fund, he said in a statement, “I am encouraged about Solamere’s distinctive approach to private equity and I am looking forward to being a part of the long-term development of this firm.” Scott still heads the executive committee for the board of directors at Wal-Mart.

Here’s Solamere:

Integrity, Professionalism, Hard Work and Passion

Solamere Capital was founded to serve as a multi-family office focusing on superior private equity opportunities. A small number of families with broad networks joined together to aggregate their access to top-tier private equity firms, proprietary deal flow, and unparalleled management resources and expertise.

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Reader Interactions

38Comments

  1. 1.

    elmo

    April 24, 2012 at 2:32 pm

    “Proprietary deal flow?” WTF?

  2. 2.

    Kay

    April 24, 2012 at 2:35 pm

    @elmo:

    I like “multi family company”. I’m baffled. Are there “companies” where there’s only ONE family, outside of, I don’t know, a restaurant?

  3. 3.

    Douglas

    April 24, 2012 at 2:41 pm

    @Kay:
    Does Koch count?

  4. 4.

    Poopyman

    April 24, 2012 at 2:42 pm

    @Kay: Yeah. Crime families.

    OTOH, there’s very little difference between the two.

  5. 5.

    BGinCHI

    April 24, 2012 at 2:43 pm

    Omerta, motherfuckers.

  6. 6.

    Baron Jrod of Keeblershire

    April 24, 2012 at 2:43 pm

    Sooooooooo, it’s an alliance of families (or, if you will, famiglie) who have banded together to best extract money from the community?

    And when Mitt was forcing delegates to sign a pledge of fealty to himself, might you also say he made them an offer they couldn’t refuse?

  7. 7.

    Kay

    April 24, 2012 at 2:46 pm

    @Baron Jrod of Keeblershire:

    I guess I was unaware that they actually admitted this was the thing, no, BRAGGED about it.

    A small number of families with broad networks

    Isn’t that just wildly elitist? WTF is with the “families” thing? I thought we were all supposedly bootstrapping mavericks, born alone, died alone, no help from anyone, etc.

  8. 8.

    Shari

    April 24, 2012 at 2:50 pm

    Corporations are people with families too

  9. 9.

    negative 1

    April 24, 2012 at 2:52 pm

    Seriously what does it take before people grab torches and pitchforks. They’re selling the fact that they have rich friends and that you can buy some of their influence. Now one of them is running for president. My lord everyone in this country is asleep.

  10. 10.

    Linnaeus

    April 24, 2012 at 2:54 pm

    @Kay:

    Isn’t that just wildly elitist? WTF is with the “families” thing? I thought we were all supposedly bootstrapping mavericks, born alone, died alone, no help from anyone, etc.

    Consider the intended audience. The aristocracy has no problem with such rhetoric when it is speaking to other members of the aristocracy. Most of the rabble would have no need to read Solamere’s web sites, its prospectus, etc.

  11. 11.

    BGinCHI

    April 24, 2012 at 2:57 pm

    Are the Fundie Christians really going to put a super-rich Mormon in charge of the country?

    This stuff has to hurt him with that crowd.

    They may not be smart but they are certainly cleverly prejudicial.

  12. 12.

    Roger Moore

    April 24, 2012 at 2:57 pm

    @Kay:

    Are there “companies” where there’s only ONE family, outside of, I don’t know, a restaurant?

    Yes. You don’t hear about them a lot, but there are still privately held businesses where the ownership is still within a single family. I think that kind of thing is more common in Europe than it is here, but there are some huge family companies like Cargill and Koch.

  13. 13.

    negative 1

    April 24, 2012 at 3:12 pm

    @Roger Moore: Levi’s, Johnson & Johnson spring to mind.

  14. 14.

    MattF

    April 24, 2012 at 3:19 pm

    Well, gosh. Just a good old all-American muiti-family private equity corporation. That settles that. Now. Can move on to the critical question of the ‘real’ Obama?

  15. 15.

    Roger Moore

    April 24, 2012 at 3:24 pm

    @negative 1:
    Levi Strauss is still privately held by one family, but J&J is publicly traded; it’s part of the Dow 30.

  16. 16.

    pete

    April 24, 2012 at 3:25 pm

    @Roger Moore: And then there are companies where the patriarch gets to choose his successor from among his offspring, thus leading to sibling rivalry of potentially wondrous scale. There’s some media mogul in that position — a fellow of various nationalities (according to his temporary convenience); crafty like a fox. Wonder what his surname might be?

  17. 17.

    Nellcote

    April 24, 2012 at 3:27 pm

    I wonder if all the families involved are Mormon. They’re like Scientologists in that way.

  18. 18.

    Linnaeus

    April 24, 2012 at 3:32 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Levi Strauss is still privately held by one family, but J&J is publicly traded; it’s part of the Dow 30.

    negative1 might have been thinking of S.C. Johnson & Son (the cleaning products company), which is part of a larger group of companies owned by the same family.

  19. 19.

    Ben Cisco

    April 24, 2012 at 3:33 pm

    @BGinCHI:

    Are the Fundie Christians really going to put a super-rich Mormon in charge of the country?

    Dunno. Is he still white?

    Yeah?

    Then yes, probably.

  20. 20.

    shortstop

    April 24, 2012 at 3:34 pm

    but I understand we’re in the process of vetting the incumbent President so we’re busy with that.

    How do I love kay? Lemme count the ways. One of them is “snarky,” fo sure.

  21. 21.

    Nellcote

    April 24, 2012 at 3:34 pm

    Check out Solamere’s involvement with the Stanford Ponzi scheme:

    http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/11/01/316040/romney-solamere-ponzi/

  22. 22.

    shortstop

    April 24, 2012 at 3:37 pm

    @Nellcote: I wondered the same thing. Let’s find out.

  23. 23.

    BGinCHI

    April 24, 2012 at 3:46 pm

    @Ben Cisco: Probably the whitest candidate ever.

  24. 24.

    Roger Moore

    April 24, 2012 at 3:47 pm

    @Nellcote:
    Ugh. Not that it should be any surprise that somebody who’s made a ton of money in the investment business is involved in shady business. My favorite quote is from Tagg Romney:

    Romney’s son said he owns a minority stake in Solamere Advisors, but noted that they operate with some level of independence. “We don’t control them at all, we just own them,” he explained.

    Ownership of a business without exerting any effective control. That just sounds like a great way of protecting your investors’ money, doesn’t it?

  25. 25.

    Ben Cisco

    April 24, 2012 at 3:47 pm

    @BGinCHI: To the point of translucence, even.

  26. 26.

    gex

    April 24, 2012 at 3:51 pm

    What is this, Big Love? I’d rather Bill Paxton be President than Romney.

    ETA: Or is it Pullman? I never used to get those mixed up, but then so many people talked about getting them mixed up that now I do.

  27. 27.

    BGinCHI

    April 24, 2012 at 4:03 pm

    @Ben Cisco: But not transparent.

  28. 28.

    Suffern ACE

    April 24, 2012 at 4:10 pm

    @Kay: Yes there are. That is what the family back office is for managing. Everyone has one.

  29. 29.

    Suffern ACE

    April 24, 2012 at 4:19 pm

    @Roger Moore: Wait. Does he have the title “Director” or “Partner” at the fund or not? I think both of those titles mean something nebulously specific to various investors who might have invested in the fund. Although seriously, the point of the fund is to have investments with someone influential for networking purposes. I think that’s why so many politicians go and work for these funds and firms after they retire to lobbying. Maybe someone should ask the Quayles about how that works.

  30. 30.

    Nutella

    April 24, 2012 at 4:26 pm

    Two more family-run multi-billion$ corporations, both from western Michigan: Amway and Gordon Food Service. Amway is owned and run by the families of its two founders.

  31. 31.

    shortstop

    April 24, 2012 at 4:26 pm

    @BGinCHI: @Ben Cisco: A whiter shade of fail.

  32. 32.

    gypsy howell

    April 24, 2012 at 4:27 pm

    The good news is that with only a handful of families running the whole damned country, it will require fewer tumbrels to cart them off to the guillotine, once the rest of the country has tired of eating “cake.” We probably won’t even have to re-sharpen the blades.

  33. 33.

    MikeJ

    April 24, 2012 at 4:30 pm

    @gex:

    What is this, Big Love? I’d rather Bill Paxton be President than Romney.

    Speaking of Big Love, guess what percentage of Democrats said they’d never vote for a mormon.

    Of course it gets spun as “Dems are anti mormon” even though the percentage isn’t much higher than that for Republicans.

  34. 34.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    April 24, 2012 at 4:50 pm

    @Nutella: And don’t forget sportsfans,Blackwater/Xe is the enforcement arm,of the guilded set. So if you peasants get cute, we can employ unemployed soldiers to keep you in place

  35. 35.

    Phoenician in a time of Romans

    April 24, 2012 at 4:55 pm

    Integrity, Professionalism, Hard Work and Passion

    Solamere Capital was founded to serve as a multi-family office focusing on superior private equity opportunities. A small number of families with broad networks joined together to aggregate their access to top-tier private equity firms, proprietary deal flow, and unparalleled management resources and expertise.

    Oh, fuck me rigid. When the aristocratic looters are advertising their prowess at looting the system, you’re well and truly doomed.

    Let’s translate here:

    “Solamere Capital was founded to serve [A SMALL GROUP OF ARISTOCRATS] focusing on {EXPLOITING THEIR INSIDER POSITION]. A small number of [ARISTOCRATS] joined together to aggregate their [COMMAND OF OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY], [INSIDER CONNECTIONS], and {HIRED EXPERTISE AT PLAYING THE SYSTEM].”

  36. 36.

    Gus

    April 24, 2012 at 4:58 pm

    @negative 1: Yeah, they usually wait until after they leave the Presidency to sell that influence (a la Carlyle).

  37. 37.

    Birthmarker

    April 24, 2012 at 6:29 pm

    I am now reading Kevin Phillips’ book Wealth and Democracy. He deals with these family offices. The family money is pooled and invested. The pooling allows access to hedge funds and such investments not open to average investors. This how how big fortunes become really big fortunes. This is how one gets an income of $20 million a year, and only pays 14 percent federal income tax.

    Phillips says it is a myth that the big fortunes only last a few generations. These family offices are one of the reasons why.

  38. 38.

    RalfW

    April 24, 2012 at 11:57 pm

    When I read “aggregate their access to top-tier private equity firms, proprietary deal flow, and unparalleled management resources and expertise” I fully understand why the GOP has to hate on gays and have the Nuge get all gun-nut.

    Because if lunchbucket Republicans actually knew this shit, they’d be leaving by Chevy Tahoes-full.

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