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| Gloria Allred and Maureen Stemberg |
The nation seems to be gripped with news about the possibility that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney once lied under oath to help a business partner in a divorce case. Our post on the subject--which also showed that corporate titans Ted and Randall Rollins stooped to similar criminal activity in an Alabama divorce case--is gathering momentum.
Meanwhile, a Massachusetts judge yesterday unsealed testimony in the Stemberg divorce case, and early reports indicate that Romney, at the very least, provided misleading testimony to protect his partner and Staples founder Thomas Stemberg. The goal apparently was to keep Maureen Sullivan Stemberg from receiving an equitable share of marital assets, and celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred now is fighting back on Ms. Stemberg's behalf--and it could prove to be an "October Surprise" for the GOP.
Did Mitt Romney actually commit perjury? It seems too early to say, but the public certainly appears to have grounds to question the candidate's truthfulness, even when he's under oath in a court of law.
Our post was titled "Romney Might Prove That Ted And Randall Rollins Aren't The Only Rich Guys To Lie Under Oath." The post is gaining traction on the Web, and that indicates the issue resonates with a public that perhaps has grown weary of elites who seem to think the rules don't apply to them.
Business Insider picked up on our post yesterday, with a piece by reporter Abby Rogers titled "Mitt Romney Isn't The Only Rich Guy Accused Of Lying In A Divorce."
Crooks and Liars, one of the most highly read progressive Web sites in the country, picked up on the story this morning. My piece was included in "Mike's Blog Roundup," a daily compendium of top posts from around the country.
If Romney did pull a fast one to help his business buddy save millions in divorce-related expenses, we showed that he is not alone. We cited a case styled Rollins v. Rollins that involved skulduggery that might dwarf anything present in the Stemberg case. At least Maureen Stemberg got something from her marital assets; Birmingham resident Sherry Carroll Rollins got pretty much zip.
Ted Rollins, CEO of Campus Crest Communities, stated under oath that his total income consisted of roughly $50,000 a year he made from a mortgage company in Brentwood, Tennessee--even though he was owner or partner in at least two companies and owned multiple private jets.
Does it make sense that Ted Rollins would sell his interest in such an enterprise for $85,000? No, it does not. Does it look like Randall Rollins supplied bogus documents and made false statements under oath in order to help his cousin escape a serious divorce judgment? Yes, it does.
Where is the Romney/Stemberg story headed? It's hard to say, but perhaps the best update we have so far comes from AlterNet reporter Laura Gottesdiener in a piece titled "Court Unseals Potentially Devastating Testimony--Romney Said Stocks Sold at 1/10th of Eventual Value Was 'Good Price': Romney does appear to have covered for his friend. From the AlterNet article:
The Boston Globe reports: "Mitt Romney testified under oath in 1991 that the ex-wife of Staples founder Tom Stemberg got a fair deal in the couple’s 1988 divorce, even though the company shares Maureen Sullivan Stemberg received were valued at a tenth of Staples’ stock price on the day of its initial public offering only a year later. At the time the Stembergs split, Romney suggested, there was little indication that Staples’ value would soon skyrocket. Romney’s testimony in a post-divorce lawsuit brought in 1990 by Sullivan Stemberg was unsealed on Thursday in Norfolk Probate and Family Court at the Globe’s request. Sullivan Stemberg sued unsuccessfully to amend the couple’s financial agreement after Staples went public in 1989 and closed its first day of trading at $22.50 per share, 10 times the value she had received."
According to the Globe, Sullivan Stemberg sold 175,000 shares of Staples stock at $2.25 per share, and sold 80,000 shares at $2.48 a few months later. “In my opinion, that’s a good price to sell the securities at,” Romney testified. "But on April 28, 1989, barely a year after Sullivan Stemberg sold more than half of her shares on the premise that they were worth less than $2.50 apiece, the company made its initial public offering at $19 per share and ended its first day at $22.50," the Globe reports.
The bottom line? Mitt Romney said Maureen Stemberg got a good deal when she cashed in shares for 1/10th the value they had one year later. And Randall Rollins seemingly said his cousin, Ted Rollins, made a reasonable move by selling his share in a company for $85,000, even though it had at least $245 million in assets.
Message to the 99 Percent: Members of the 1 Percent think we are stupid, folks. Mitt Romney thinks we are stupid; Randall Rollins thinks we are stupid. Their actions in high-dollar divorce cases provides all the proof we need.
29 comments:
Great dove tail, LS:
Romney is also in a class action lawsuit, more than twenty (20) plaintiffs that was a "sealed case," but now not sealed.
And same crime, underbidding.
Underbidding corporations so he and his cronies could purchase very valuable companies at the bottom bid.
The global billionaire criminals get together and underbidding is enacted via their agents, Romney is a long time best fiend yes fiend, with Bibi Netanyahu, "Rich?" please part owner in the apartheid state, Israel.
Does Bibi hate women? Does Romney intend to be the same in the actions with women as he has proven he is?
Best fiend billionaire criminally insane tribal scary every day is our Halloween with these monsters.
So basically what happened they gave her such undervalued stock before the Ipo that she sold it because she needed a little money. Then they have the gall and the nerve to say that was a good price for the stock. I guarantee they had her so poor that she had to sell the stock. They knew exactly what they were doing about the IPO after all IPO's don't happen overnight; it takes more than a year to plan an execute an IPO.
I guarantee you that Ted Rollins/Randall Rollins knew exactly how to pull the heist on Mrs. Rollins too. After all Mitt, Ted, Randall types grow up learning these habits at their fathers knee and their grand fathers. It is not going to stop; the sons will continue the tradition...and Romney has five.
Anon at 4:30--
Thanks for an insightful comment. And I bet you are right on target--Ms. Stemberg was under major financial stress and took a bad deal in the divorce. As bad as her deal was, the one Sherry Rollins' got was far worse. Her divorce got moved from South Carolina to Alabama, where the judge had no lawful jurisdiction. Ted Rollins' role with St. James Capital, which had been established by the judge in South Carolina, suddenly vanished in Alabama--because Randall Rollins produced a bogus document saying Ted had sold his share for $85,000. I'm glad the Romney/Stemberg story has come to light--and I feel for what Ms. Stemberg has been through--but it pales in comparison to what was done to Sherry Rollins and her daughters. You add in the fact that Ted Rollins clearly abused one of Ms. Rollins' sons . . . well, it can't get much uglier than that.
Gloria Allred might have done us all a favor by bringing this issue to light. Most Americans have no idea what happens in divorce courts.
"... The judicial system in America needs a massive overhaul. The constitution is no longer the foundation of this judicial system. It is no longer the plumb line of law. If all of us who care, and want to see change go do this one thing, we can successfully redirect the force of this nation. We must do this or we will succumb to the wealthy corporations that want to use us as poorly paid wage slaves to fund their lavish lifestyles....
Leonard Peltier's honor of Russell Means,
www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/
In being the best investigative eye, the women when measured in the U.S. at the top would be Ruth Bader Ginsburg, as far as power and money, but the unseen women in power are those like Golda Mier, the Israeli terror smoking machine.
Golda is dead, but she groomed many an ugly matriarch to be the bookend with the heinous subhuman broken "men."
Hillary and Bill, Arkansas deep rooted and Bill, a 'shirttail' relative of David Rockefeller.
Barbaric yesterday knuckle dragging beasts - dressed in modern pretend while underneath the 'civilized' look is a cannibal that tortures before supper.
Gloria Allred is our savior, we must all send her support.
"... If you look at the 80 CEOs that signed this list, you don’t see a single Silicon Valley or tech darling (well, there is Microsoft, but they are too long in the tooth to be darlings, and one small cap tech company, Investment Technology Group, but it’s on Motley Fool’s current list of 10 Worst Small Cap CEOs, so it proves our point). There’s a complete absence of the sort of companies that America likes to hold up as its winners.
.. Instead, the list is heavy with finance, including private equity firms, and mature industries. A sampling:
AT&T
Bank of America
BlackRock
Clayton & Dubilier (major LBO firm)
Deloitte Federal Government Services
Dow Chemical Company
General Atlantic, LLC (major LBO firm)
General Electric Company
Goldman, Sachs & Co.
HarbourVest Partners, LLC
Humana Inc.
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Knight Capital Group, Inc.
Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P.
Promontory Financial Group
Silver Lake Partners (a major LBO firm)
Time Warner Cable Inc.
Verizon Communications Inc.
Read more at http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/10/rentier-ceos-advocate-austerity-for-america.html#WFrK4LPssudtJQ5f.99
My friend tells me that Mr. Big Stuff just drove away in a rental car which he picks up at the hangar while the pilots and the new Mrs. Rollins wait for him to pick up his daughters and return to his jet in Bham. She reports that he did not even get out to retrieve the luggage and put it into the trunk for these two young girls. She told me he is taking them to NYC she thinks; she also said that they were to bring cocktail dresses, shoes, and attend a fancy dinner in Connecticut. That is just what she learned from her 15 year old daughter. My friend, Sherry Rollins has a grand total of $10. to her name until the end of the month and that is after she has pawned her wedding ring for the 8th time for a $100 already this month.
Thieves taking off in jets to stay in fancy hotels while the ex wife sits at home? in a rented abode with $10.00 dollars to spend any way she wants as long as there is gas in the car which belongs to Mr. Rollins, Bradley Arant Law firm, Holly Rollins, or somebody. Just don't get me started on this subject because I will go spider monkey on someone or something. This woman did nothing to deserve this treatment. Her only mistake was marrying a plutocrat, corporat, Rollins with a trust fund.
Sounds like Mr. Rollins is pissed because his ex didn't just sit back and take it. Bullies don't usually know how to handle it when a victim fights back.
Maggots were used in WWII, gangrene rotting legs, soldiers had gold plated structures over the infected part, mostly legs were riddled with gangrene and the maggots ate the rotting flesh.
This was the most humane way to save the legs of the soldiers.
What the eaten legs look like is truly a fainting experience.
Ted Rollins married again, more children, moving about the world free and rich.
Former spouse Sherry and daughters are abandoned as though not deserving to be alive.
We have the George Soros tribal cult, Diane Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, "Culture of Vulgarity," BLOB slime, slither, toxic shock of poisoned spirit. No boundaries are the worshiping, dis-ease of American fractured 'society,' and we label this 'elite.'
Please explain how Romney was at fault when what the stock was worth a year after his testimony has no bearing on what it was at the time of his testimony? These 2 cases aren't as similar as the parallels intended to create! Looking like a spin job.
Anon at 8:57--
As I say in the post, it's too early to say if Romney was at fault because most Americans have not seen his full testimony. We do have a Boston Globe account, and this, to me, seems to be the key information:
"The closing price made Staples, which had 23 stores at the time, worth more than $200 million. Stemberg, holding 567,000 shares, claimed $12.8 million in company stock.
Sullivan Stemberg’s remaining shares were worth $1.8 million after the IPO, but she had lost out on more than $1 million by selling when the stock was still private in 1988."
It seems to me, the issue is this: Was information about the company's plans to go public withheld from Ms. Stemberg? That might be an issue involving Mr. Stemberg, more than Romney.
Based on the timing of things, though, I think you have phrased things incorrectly. The divorce settlement was in 1988, Staples went public in 1989, and Romney testified in a post-divorce lawsuit in 1991. So Romney was testifying totally after the fact. It's not a matter of what the stock was a year after his testimony; it's matter of what the stock was three years before his testimony vs. what it was two years before his testimony.
For him to say the wife got a fair deal seems pretty disingenuous. Since he apparently was stating a matter of opinion, that might take it outside the bounds of perjury.
I do agree with you on this: The behavior of Randall and Ted Rollins in the Alabama divorce looks much worse than the case involving Romney.
The similarity is that they both involve charges of making false statements under oath in a divorce case. But based on what I know at the moment, the Rollins case is far worse.
Great work LS. I am happy to see that you are getting more traction and attention that your hard work deserves. Keep digging!!
Haha speaking of DiFi! The heiress to to her riddled legacy is making quite the name for herself on the judicial front in San Fran. Her daughter is a family law judge out their who Is a chip off the old block! She is cooking up court cases and rigging cases for dads after they invest a large chunk of change with her. Her actions just cost Californians multi millions in federal grant funds to run the court system not to mention the many jobs lost bc of her greed! Although for her that was a small price to pay considering the alternative is prison! Funny thing about it was she had to be the one to inform the public of these cuts and still when ask what she thought it would do to court dockets, belittled those who cut her misused funds! If it wasn't for who her mommy dearest is, she probably would be in prison with a few other CA judges who did the same thing! This is not a publicly known issue but for those that do know the real reason for the cuts, the dishonorable Katherine Feinstein looks like a complete jackass! The reason for these cuts are also why Katherine decided not to run for DA.
“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power”
*
What the heck! Buy your own justice!
Wouldn't that be PRETTY?
2 things, you hit the nail in the head with re to knowledge of the company going public. Romey should bear no responsibility in that and as far as his opinion on 1 mil vs 2 mil being fair. If he was asked to give an opinion then why crudity an opinion? To a man of Romney's caliber the difference in 1 mil and 2 mil is probably nothing. Although to someone who isn't worth what say Romney is, might view the million dollar difference with different opinion which is only natural. A million bucks is a million bucks. Still looking like a spin
Oops crucify. Autocorrect
anon 9:34 PM, thanks for the inside scoop on Feinstein's daughter. The families are our problem alright, offspring like Romney 5, Pelosi 5, and these BLOB evildoers are literally believing America is for them, Tim Geithner is another BLOB for the BIG HEIST, US Dept Treasury and IRS.
Yes we can pass around a one dollar bill as fast as we can, one million of us, and call it still one dollar.
BUT, Romney, Rollins, the BLOB actually compute digits on some mouse or ? and call it "money."
Are we a ton of dumb, NO, the news has not caught up with Legal Schnauzer in mainstream America.
Our turn is at the LS site for the whole world to know how wisdom looks when journalism is the greatest information stream, born with the gene of altruism - Schnauzer family, for the genius of being human to bring true change.
"... Eighty corporate-financial thieves, who between them are largely to blame for the financial disaster of 2008, who are collectively responsible for the destruction for countless jobs and entire communities, publicly inform the political powers that be what the policies of the next government—theoretically still elected by the populace—are to be.
.. And, of course, the response of the Obama and Romney camps to the CEO letter was sympathetic and even enthusiastically supportive. The Journal cites the comment of Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt: “There’s a strong and growing consensus that the only way to reduce the deficit while also growing the economy is through a balanced approach that includes both tough spending cuts and increased revenue.”
.. Romney campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg told the newspaper, “As president, [Romney] will bring his record of bipartisan success to Washington and put us on a path to achieve more than the Simpson-Bowles commission ever proposed—balancing the budget within the next 10 years.”
Wall Street’s “Deficit Manifesto”:
Eighty Top CEOs tell Obama, Romney to Slash Social Spending, By David Walsh, Global Research, October 27, 2012,
The 1% are convinced American 99% are nothing but disposable commodities.
Begin with Tim Geithner, the darling for the BLOB, and this entity has not had to disclose what is in the "Treasury" while the homes of Americans on REAL MONEY, SOCIAL SECURITY SAVED FOR YEARS AND YEARS, are thrown out into the main street for Wall Street criminals to destroy a sovereign MODERN "America."
How ignorant are we the non people?
Guessing we're into the coming austerity of the BLOB without cutting the INJUSTICE in America, the "Social Credit Welfare, FEDERAL SPENDING CLAUSE," is clearly to be more of the same:
TO Campus Crest, Ted Rollins' cult of children destroyed for the future of enslaving US as little blobs to be harvested.
The courts are the BLOBS' machine to cull the masses of no more use to the BLOB.
"... Saturday, October 27, 2012, Neil Barofsky Discusses Incestuous Orgy” Between Washington and Wall Street on Bill Moyers ....
.. It was Bill Moyers who used the expression “incestuous orgy” in this interview with former head of SIGTARP Neil Barofsky to describe the relationship between major financial firms and the Federal government. That beats the anodyne “revolving door” all day and I hope becomes part of the lexicon for describing the capture of Washington by Wall Street.
.. Barofsky describes not only his experience at SIGTARP in fighting with the Paulson and Geithner Treasuries to oversee the bailout program, but also his reasons for thinking a financial crisis is inevitable....
Read more at http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/10/neil-barofsky-discusses-incestuous-orgy-between-washington-and-wall-street-on-bill-moyers.html#yBWkgZBvRvjIiXMd.99
70x7 write say think energy is energy and we must 'move' the stuck in our bowels of the American Spirit, or dream the reality in sleeping time, into awake and / or both
Blob constitutionally purged
just a suggestion ..
whatever mind, body, spirit energy moves the toxic poisoning in our US bowels, needs to be cocreated from the unseen into the seen and purged right now!
Christina Marlowe says: October 27, 2012 @NAKED Capitalism
RE: Bill Moyers interview of Neil Bar-of-sky ....
“... There is one and only one solution to both the American and the entire Global problem of the thorough “financialization” of the Kleptocratic, Corporate-owned and Corporate-Run [Corporate Takeover] Fascist Dictatorships that have enthroned themselves to power. Here it is:
.. The CRIMINALS must be PROSECUTED for their CRIMES. Absolutely NOTHING will “change,” much LESS get “better” until and unless THAT happens. Indeed, if the CRIMINALS are ALLOWED to continue to PLUNDER, it will, in FACT, only get WORSE. MUCH WORSE.
.. ALL criminals involved in these monstrous, reprehensible, PATHOLOGICAL financial CRIMES, which were clearly, totally and willfully collaborated as a gigantic Scheme to Defraud and totally BILK the very citizens of this, our country, the United States, and, um, the entire world, MUST PAY.
.. Each one of these Criminals must be Indicted, Prosecuted to the fullest extent of THE NEW LAWS, (all of which will be made retroactive) and, finally, actually PUNISHED SEVERELY; Let me be perfectly clear: Each CRIMINAL that is found GUILTY in the Courts of Law, whether by a judicious Judge or by a Jury of his/her “peers,” shall be held fully accountable for their [blatant] CRIMES, and penalties will surely entail STIFF terms of imprisonment, along with the lawful SEIZURE of ALL ill-gotten gains.
.. We all know, for example, that George Bush, Dick Cheney…that list goes on and on: War Criminals; And let’s not forget Jamie Dimon, Lloyd Blankfein, Richard Fuld, Hank Paulson, Larry Sommers, Timothy Geithner, Alan Greenspan; And an astonishingly dizzying and countless number of all the other CRIMINALS; All should be on the TOP of the list for the vigorous investigations and thorough prosecutions.
.. We MUST HOLD each of these Serial PREDATORS/Criminals FULLY ACCOUNTABLE for their outrageous crimes of Fraud, Scheme to Defraud, Financial Elder Abuse, and countless other very serious Felonies.
.. In fact, they should ALL be publicly EXECUTED by HANGING.
http://billmoyers.com/segment/neil-barofsky-on-the-need-to-tackle-banking-reform/
"... Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq ....
http://www.democracynow.org/
"... A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order, Authored by F. William Engdahl ..
.. This is a story about power, power over entire nations and continents. The story describes the vehicle to that unparalleled power over nations, oil, and the vital role it has played in peace as well as wars in the past century. Henry Kissinger, the former American Secretary of State put it succinctly during the first oil shock of the early 1970's. He declared, "Control the oil and you control entire nations."
.. A thin red line runs through the history of the world since Fashoda, and that is covered in oil and blood. This book is not for the faint of heart, but it is meant to provoke reflection and discussion among those who can see beyond the daily media manipulation of reality that is called news.
http://www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net
It would of been nice if U.S. District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen had known the Constitution even existed when she was a prosecutor-- when she & David W. Bouchard were doing the cowardly FBI a favor when they screwed up my case:
http://hamptonroads.com/2012/10/judge-sends-tunnel-tolls-lawsuit-back-state-court
http://justice4maryanne.bbnow.org/index.php
"... Our parental rights are being undermined. Maryanne Godboldo sought to provide the best health care for her child; she disagreed with The State of Michigan, Department of Human Services and Child Protective Services' demand that she medicate her child. Maryanne was forced to protect her daughter in the wake of an over-reaction by Child Protective Services and the Detroit Police officers on the scene. Providing health care for one's children is not something that should be surrendered to any state authority.
Here are some links to the story...
"... In November 2002, investigative journalist Michael Ruppert asked, “Was Paul Wellstone Murdered?” He wrote:
.. “The day after the crash I received a message from a former CIA operative who has proven extremely reliable in the past and who is personally familiar with these kinds of assassinations.”
.. “The message read, ‘As I said earlier, having played ball (and still playing in some respects) with this current crop of reinvigorated old white men, these clowns are nobody to screw around with. There will be a few more strategic accidents. You can be certain of that.’ “
.. Everyone challenging the system is vulnerable. Wellstone paid with his life.
Paul Wellstone: Tenth Anniversary of His Assassination, By Stephen Lendman
Some of the male 1%ers see women only as a source of off spring, to produce heirs. Once that has been done they aren't of much use unless they are required for political or business purposes. If the wife wants out of the marriage, well she can leave with nothing, from their point of view. The wife married into the family & in some views that does not actually make them part of the family, only married in.
These men who want to shed themselves of their wives, without dealing up the assets of the marriage in a fair & equitable way, treat their employees in much the same manner. I am sure many of these "business men" pay their staff min. wages or close to it.
when one man is less than truthfull to assist another man in his divorce I would suggest these men don't even see it as "lying" or short changing the former spouse or reducing her to poverty. These men see it as a manner of assiting their male friends in keeping their businesses intact & running. its just business.
The disregard for their wives is just part of the attitude of these men to women in general. They aren't people, they are an asset & when it isn't an asset, they get rid of it. Their wives are a means to an end.
They may have loved her at one time, but most likey they married who they did, at the time because it suited their life style or saw the wife as an asset. Like all assets, when they cease to be a real asset, you dispose of it because it has just become a liability.
These same men & their friends are also the type who wish to control women's bodies.
These men are all a bunch of sanctamonious jerks. It is unfortate for their children that the child support is not set in accordance with their fathers' incomes. In Canada, alimony is one thing. Division of assets is another. Then there is child support & that is set based on the parental incomes. the
Rollins scum bag would never have gotten away with what he pays for child support in Canada. In Canada usually women but sometimes men can have their chidl support adjusted everytime the non custodial parent gets a higher income. They need to produce their income tax forms. They don't get to use deductions either to lower their income to pay less child support.
Wouldn't it be extremely interesting to see what the internal Bain Cap documents said about the value of Staples? Since Bain acknowledged being interested in investing in a company (Staples)that would multiply its investment many times over, it is highly likely that Bain's internal documents would directly contradict Romney's testimony concerning the value of Staples.
Greg:
You make an excellent point. Would like to see Gloria Allred get her hands on those. Those documents probably are the key to this whole matter.
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