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July 20th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
Mr Obama’s campaign claims the documents may show that Mr Romney profited from
the destruction of companies bought by his private equity firm, or paid even
less than his current 15 per cent tax rate, thanks to his foreign accounts.
The disclosure of the Lyons/Maxwell links also sheds light on one of the
worst periods in the history of Bain, where Mr Romney was a senior
management consultant. Its London office was ensnared in the Guinness
scandal after being paid millions of pounds in fees for advising the drinks
company.
In 1984, Mr Romney set up Bain Capital, the firm’s investment arm, overseeing
fundraising from his Boston office. Corporate files obtained by The Daily
Telegraph show that Lyons, whom Bain hired to help set up its British
office, was his first investor, putting in $2.5 million via a front company
in Panama.
Colleagues from the time said in interviews with The Daily Telegraph
that the “unlamented” Lyons, the Yorkshire-born retail magnate and
close ally of then-prime minister Margaret Thatcher, also reported back to
Boston that he had signed up Maxwell, a friend and fellow City giant. “Jack
took an interest in Bain almost as if we were his sons,” said one Bain
executive based in London at the time. “He wanted us to succeed in the
UK and he introduced us to a lot of people . . . I remember attending a
luncheon in London with Robert Maxwell.”
Maxwell, an avowed socialist, invested through his British print firm, which
was ultimately controlled by his secretive foundation in the tax haven of
Liechtenstein. Lyons’s nephew, Graham, and a trust in his name, invested a
further $225,000. Graham Lyons, now a barrister in London, declined to
discuss Mr Romney’s fund, adding: “I’m not in finance.” He
referred queries to Lyons’s son Jonathon, who did not respond.
A string of Bain partners invested about $12 million of their own money; Mr
Romney putting up at least $160,000. Millions more came from investors in
other tax havens including the Bahamas and Switzerland, and powerful
families from El Salvador, some of whom were later linked to Right-wing “death
squads” responsible for murders in their country’s civil war. The $37
million fund was a great success, funding among others the global expansion
of Staples, the stationers. According to a prospectus, it yielded an average
return of 173 per cent a year on stakes in 21 firms, making millions in
profits for its investors. “Every couple of years I would get a cheque,”
one recalled. “It was always a lot more than I had put into it”.
One Bain executive said: “Bain Capital is now a multi-billion dollar
fund, and it’s made Mitt very wealthy”.
Maxwell died in suspicious circumstances in 1991 at the age of 68. It emerged
he had plundered hundreds of millions of pounds from employee pension funds
to plug holes in company finances, prompting a partial bail-out by British
taxpayers.
He had sold his British print firm at a vast profit. Its later owners did not
respond to questions about what happened to the Bain Capital stake.
Meanwhile Lyons found himself at the centre of the scandal at Guinness,
which had paid Bain millions to help rescue its fortunes, in a deal approved
by partners in Boston, such as Mr Romney.
Lyons, who was being paid $100,000 a year by Bain, agreed to join a group of
Guinness allies buying up Guinness stock to boost its share price and make a
1986 takeover bid for rival firm Distillers more attractive. The takeover
was successful, prompting Bill Bain, the firm’s founder and Mr Romney’s
mentor, to write to Lyons from Boston: “We are all delighted and look
forward to hearing the story of how you managed to pull it off.”
The truth was the deal secretly included £25 million in “success fees”,
or bribes, for the allies to buy the stock, and guarantees of refunds for
any losses – all illegal. Lyons and three others were convicted of theft and
false accounting. While three were jailed, Lyons avoided prison due to ill
health. He was stripped of his knighthood and CBE, and fined £4 million. He
died aged 92 in 2008. There is no suggestion that Mr Romney, nor any of the
partners in Boston had any knowledge of the wrongdoing.
A Bain colleague in London described the period as “traumatic”. Mr
Romney avoided the fallout by focusing on Bain Capital. “Mitt was just
another partner watching this thing unfold,” said the colleague.
Another British former colleague described him as “bloodless”. He
added: “He was the sort of person that you would admire rather than
like, and I think that continues to bedevil his political career.”
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