Did Romney commit perjury in the Stemberg divorce when he downplayed value of Staples stock?
When he testified at the Stemberg divorce trial that the Staples stock was "overvalued"? (The stock was reportedly valued at $2.25 per share when Maureen received it -- and was worth $19 per share two years later, when it went public.)
http://tantmieux.squarespace.com/cyrano-tant-mieux-articles-old/2008/2/5/a-fish-out-of-water-mitt-romney-the-wanna-be-president.html
It was about a year and half later later, in 1988 when called as a witness by Tom Stemberg’s lawyers for a divorce case that Romney said on record that Staples stock was, essentially, “over-valued."In his own-words, Romney said, “I didn’t place a great deal of credibility in the forecast of the company’s future.” (p. 441, appeals court document No. 95 P 286, Norfolk County) Romney is then asked how many times in the past he has “reviewed these kinds of offerings” (441). Yet in the early Spring of 1989 Staples went public. So much for undervalued. Either Mitt does not know his figures, or he was dangerously close to perjuring himself on the stand or outright lying. You decide.
What is important to note here is that while Romney was giving this testimony, he was also in dealings with Stemberg and Goldman Sachs to take the company public. That is to say, a company of no worth, in Romney’s own words – he was about to carry the “dream” forward.
Staples went public through Goldman Sachs but three years after Romney’s initial capital investment. “Mitt Romney says he’s prouder of this [Staples] investment than any other.” (Mister PowerPoint Goes to Washington, Mathew Rees, December 1, 2006)
The issue here, if it is not already clear, is why a primary investor in a company that Romney was about to take public and of which he later says he is prouder than any other, he downplayed in a civil divorce case.
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/relationships/articles/2005/11/13/ladies_man/?page=full
Of course, if his style always translated to money in the bank for his female clients, only their fat-cat husbands would complain. But that's not always the case. Take Maureen Sullivan Stemberg, the ex-wife of Staples founder Tom Stemberg. They divorced in 1987, and, in the settlement, she received nearly 500,000 shares of Staples stock, reportedly valued at $2.25 per share. Problem was, Staples went public two years later - at $19 per share - after she had unloaded nearly half her stock. She hired Inker to get her what she thought she deserved. The divorce grew into a decade-long mess, breathlessly retold on the front page of The Wall Street Journal in 1997.
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