There is an old proverb that says, “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones,” and it basically means “one shouldn’t criticize others if you have weaknesses yourself;” it means the person throwing stones is a hypocrite. There are few Americans who could legitimately disagree that Republicans are rank hypocrites, and on Friday the master of hypocrisy and mendacity, Willard Romney, sat in his proverbial glass house and hurled stones at the Internal Revenue Service for doing its job in scrutinizing conservative liars claiming they were tax exempt social welfare organizations when in reality they were partisan political campaign fundraising groups. The master of mendacity called for a special prosecutor to explore “criminal issues” and determine who knew why the IRS reviewed, in equal measure, progressive, liberal, teabagger, and conservative applications for social welfare designation.
Romney complained that some of the social welfare aspirants such as Karl Rove’s CrossroadsGPS and Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity faced scrutiny by the IRS for lying on their applications, and instead of primarily promoting social welfare, poured money into conservative candidates’ campaign coffers and concealed their dirty money donors. Of course, Romney failed to note the Bush appointee heading the IRS investigated the NAACP, Greenpeace, and a church that opposed the Iraq war while Bush was president, or that Bush’s appointee lead IRS scrutiny of progressive and conservative groups’ that media and Republicans dreamt up were solely teabagger patriot groups. However, no-one expects Republicans, or Willard Romney, to tell the truth that the IRS was doing its due diligence to distinguish legitimate social welfare applications from those steeped in perjury, and since Romney is calling for a special prosecutor to explore “criminal issues,” it is time to call for a special prosecutor to “explore criminal issues” during Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital, his SEC and FEC filings, and perjury under testimony in during his business partner’s divorce.
First, and this is important, Romney can never claim that he is not responsible for his Bain Capital surrogates and operatives’ perjury and corruption in fraudulent business practices, because he stated shortly after the Benghazi attack that President Obama was wholly responsible for anything anyone in his administration did wrong. Fine, double standards work in the Republican world, but not in evaluating truthfully the corruption and fraud inherent in Romney’s tenure as head of Bain Capital; especially after running his mouth about “criminal issues.” A special prosecutor delving into Willard Romney would certainly find no dearth of fraud and corruption, and if the prosecutor were not bought off by dark money or pressured by powerful conservative political groups, he would have little choice but to charge the Department of Justice with launching an investigation under the 1970 federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), as well as prosecute him for Federal Elections Commission (FEC) and Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) violations.
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Regular readers of this column may recall that for months last year leading up to the general election, there was intensive investigation into Romney and Bain Capital’s corruption and fraud in taking over companies with valuable assets, burdening them with crushing debt using other people’s money, and then bankrupting them leaving investors and creditors holding the bag. It was suggested at the time that one of Romney’s goals as president was appointing an attorney general who would scuttle any investigation into the mountain of deceit, fraud, and corruption inherent in a dirty vulture capitalist’s business practices, but Romney is not president and the U.S. Attorney General has an obligation to the American people and thousands of investors to launch an investigation into Romney and his company, Bain Capital, and thoroughly “explore criminal issues.”
A Justice Department investigation would find that in the eToys takeover and bankruptcy, Romney and Bain Capital’s secret law firm colluded with Romney’s bankruptcy gang by committing perjury to represent debtors’ and creditor’s counsel to give the appearance of being on opposite sides and conceal the fact eToys was not broke. Controlling both sides, Bain Capital’s corrupt gang conspired to plunder company assets without opposition and give Bain Capital eToys for free. Despite the fact that Bain’s secret law firms admitted lying, there was no Department of Justice investigation into Bain Capital, Romney, or their surrogates’ fraud and perjury because George W. Bush nominated another Bain associate as United States Attorney who refused to investigate and prosecute confessed acts of perjury and admitted intentional crimes.
In another case of Romney’s corrupt business practices, a special prosecutor would discover that in 2000 a company Romney owned controlling shares in according to an SEC filing, Stage Stores, filed for bankruptcy and another court document filed by Romney’s company Sankaty Advisors, Inc. applied for allowance and payment of administrative expense in the Stage Stores bankruptcy without disclosing Romney’s interest in both companies. According to a bankruptcy court golden rule that “mandates all disclosures of conflict of interest,” and according to 18 USCS § 152 (3), “A person who knowingly and fraudulently makes a false declaration, certificate, verification, or statement under penalty of perjury as permitted under section 1s746 of title 28, in or in relation to any case under title 11 shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.” Besides not disclosing “conflict of interest” as mandated by federal bankruptcy court law, Romney “failed to disclose his ownership in Sankaty on seven different financial disclosures” that Democrats cited in July 2012 and yet there has been no investigation or prosecution.
It may not be the purview of a special prosecutor, but there is still the question of why the Department of Justice has not answered a complaint filed by MoveOn.org to investigate a clear violation of False Statements Act, 18 U.S.C. §1001, where Romney stated unequivocally on his personal financial disclosure form filed in 2011 (SF 278), that he was “not involved in the operations of any Bain Capital entity in any way” after February 12, 1999. However, “substantial evidence contradicts” Romney’s claim that he was not “active” in Bain Capital in “any” way after 1999, because on other SEC filings he claimed he was 100% stock holder and paid Bain Capital executive in 2002. A comprehensive investigation would determine which filing Romney violated the False Statements Act on. Although it is beyond the statute of limitations, for background on Romney’s history of committing perjury, there is the little issue of Willard lying to protect Staples’ owners’ assets in 1988 during a divorce settlement to protect his friend from fairly splitting community assets with his ex-wife.
Romney should have stayed in his gilded glass house and not waded into the phony IRS scandal throwing stones and calling for a special prosecutor to explore “criminal issues” because the agency performed its due diligence scrutinizing phony applications for social welfare status to conceal their dark money donors. What he has done in opening his lying mouth is reminded concerned Americans that Willard Romney is in line for a very special and very thorough federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act investigation that will expose a mountain of “criminal issues” he profited handsomely from and hid the money offshore to avoid paying federal income tax.
The Department of Justice has a duty to Americans to investigate all criminal activity and there are already reams of data available to initiate a RICO investigation forthwith, and if the DOJ was holding off during the election out of fear of being portrayed as political, or worried that a Romney victory would garner severe repercussions, those fears and concerns are laid to rest with his defeat. Perhaps the DOJ is fearful of the wide-reaching scope of a RICO investigation into Romney and Bain Capital, because there is little doubt Wall Street and the LDS church would be implicated in Willard’s “criminal issues,” but if they are ever going to have the full faith of the people, some brave person at the DOJ must follow the lead of IRS agents and perform their due diligence and investigate Willard Mitt Romney under RICO and bring his perjury and criminal issues to justice once and for all.
Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
