Salt Lake City Olympics - Is this true?

[Nine]

Saw this on Wikipedia:

In 1998, several IOC members were forced to resign after it was uncovered that they had accepted bribes from Salt Lake Bid Committee co-heads Tom Welch and Dave Johnson in return for voting for Salt Lake City to hold the Games. In response to the scandal and a financial shortfall for the games, Mitt Romney, then CEO of the private equity firm Bain Capital, was hired as the new President and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, leaving him and IOC President Dr. Jacques Rogge to contend with the public outcry and financial mess. Romney, Kem C. Gardner, a Utah commercial real estate developer, and Don Stirling, the Olympics' local marketing chief, raised "millions of dollars from Mormon families with pioneer roots" to help rescue the games, according to a later report. An additional $410 million dollars was received from the federal government.

If true, maybe I'm the only one on DU who didn't already know this. THIS is how Romney "saved the games"?

[hedgehog]

1. It may be old news, but it bears repeating to make sure everyone gets the word!

[TheLeftBank]

11. There's more to the story...

At the time, Mitt actually registered as a lobbiest so he could hustle the government for taxpayer money. And, despite Mitt's commercial claiming his Olympics made a $100 million profit, the true number was about $40 million - about a tenth of what the taxpayers had to cough up to bail his butt out. And, he didn't return a single cent to the government. The money was to be used for the upkeep of the (now privately owned) venues used in the Olympics.

Also, remember, that Mitt claims he was never involved in Bain Capital after he went to Utah to supervise the Olympics. A remarkably similar tax scandal over his 2002 run for Governor of Massachusetts puts the lie to that.

It seems that Mitt was declaring Utah as his primary residence for the years from 1999 through 2002 and filing his primary tax forms as such - while also filing separate non-resident tax returns in Massachusetts to cover the $100,000 salary that Bain was still paying him through 2002 for his frequent business trips back to work with Bain .

When his opponent asked him outright whether he had been filing as a Utah resident, Mitt insisted that was wrong, and he had always been listing Massachusetts as his primary residence. When challenged to produce his tax returns for those years, he refused, saying that he knew what was in the returns and he was assuring everybody that he filed as a Mass. resident. "You'll just have to trust me," he said then (as he is saying now). Meanwhile, because you can't run for Governor of Mass. if you haven't spent the previous 7 years as a resident, he (after he had denied filing as a non-resident) and his accountants filed "amended tax returns" for the years he was really a Utah resident, which now claimed he was a Mass. resident. His Utah returns did leak out, however, but his amended returns provided the technicality that let him run in the election.

I would call Mitt a sleazy, lying weasel, but my attorney tells me that the Sleazy Lying Weasel Anti-defamation League would likely sue me for slandering them by association. This guy is nauseating enough to knock a buzzard off a guts wagon!

[EOTE]

12. Thanks for the info, and welcome to DU!

Every time I think Mittens can't get any sleazier, he always manages to prove me wrong. It almost seems like he has very little desire to become president.

[Ineeda]

13. AND I believe he listed his Mass. residence

as his son's unfinished basement to vote for Brown. Sure he lived there. Uh, huh. BUT he got away with it.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/brendancoffey/2011/06/15/did-mitt-romney-live-in-his-sons-unfinished-basement-last-year/
That, IMO, why he's so puzzled that this is not going away. He's gotten away with shady stuff too many times.

[TheLeftBank]

15. No mystery...

because the Republicans don't care if he is basting immigrant babies in plum sauce and barbequing them in his backyard grill and serving them to his supporters with a nice vintage Bordeaux - as long as he promises to slash taxes on the top 1% (0.1%?), remove any remaining weak regulations on banking and corporate behavior, repeal Romneyca...oops, Obamacare, dismantle the past 80 years of progress, and end the Capital Gains tax (while increasing the tax burden on those who are not of his class).

Also, to EOTE, thanks and I'm glad to be here. Between my own brand new blog and my participation on many other forums, (as well as working for Occupy and the Wobblies) I'm not sure how often I'll be able to participate.

[undeterred]

2. Kristi Yamaguchi seems to know about it...

As she is appearing in the Romney Saved the Olympics commercial. I have now lost all respect for her.

[TheLeftBank]

17. You have to give people like her some slack...

Basically, Americans have become so dumbed down over the past 30 to 40 years, that most of them are not only ignorant (in the sense of being denied adequate knowledge), but as stupid as a stale Cheez Doodle.

I think that that America's aggregate IQ has remained the same over the past 40 years, but the population keeps going up. And, by definition, half of all Americans have IQs below the median <grin>.

Check out the book Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free by Charles P. Pierce and Cultural Idiocy: Why America Is Losing the War of Words by Joe Marconi.

[undeterred]

18. I always thought she was smarter than the average athlete.

But once they get money in their pockets they are all alike.

[malaise]

3. Yes - read Andrew Jennings' book

New Lord of the Rings.
Not only that, but more than a few children of IOC officials from several countries received scholarships at BYU in exchange for votes. All sorts of gifts were exchanged including prostitutes.

[elleng]

4. Something like that.

He did a decent job managing, after the scandal was revealed. Feds provided lots of $$$ for transportation and security type matters; nothing unusual about that, and it was after 9/11.

Don't know about Mormon roots $$$.

[Scuba]

5. The Federal contribution was reported as $1.3 billion.

[spanone]

6. the taxpayers saved the games...romney took the credit.

[Stuart G]

7. So, someone is here to tell us what a great guy Romney is...terrific..

I am so proud we have a new member to tell us what a great fellow he is/was...

But here, more than the Salt Lake Olympics...that were rescued with 410 million in Federal Money...we,
value the following, in no particular order:

Public Education
Social Security
Workman's Compensation
Unions
Union Right to Organize
Medicare as it is now
Food Stamps
Welfare
Helping Poor People who are in need.
Health Care Reform..

Now...Romney doesn't care about any of those. He would cut them all..yep cut them out to increase the military.
So, I hate Romney more than before...and would like to know how much income taxes he paid for the last ten years..
..................wouldn't you...Nine..or is what you care about that Romney with a little help for the federal government saved something
years ago......please......................

[Nine]

8. I'm confused

Did you think my post was PRO-Romney?

[Fumesucker]

10. Don't worry about it, plenty of people are far too quick on the trigger around here..

And welcome to DU.

[Nine]

16. Thanks!

...although I've actually been a member for 5 years. Just not a frequent poster.

[Motown_Johnny]

9. Yep, Mitt called himself a "Lobbyist for the Olympics" and he got a bailout.

[Hamlette]

14. The feds spent more on the SLC Olympics than all the other US Olympics combined

Sports Illustrated has a great article about it that is still online. I bet you can google for it.

[aquart]

19. His pals and the US gov't. Did it all himself.