http://thinkprogress.org/economy/201...olamere-ponzi/

Exclusive: Romney Family Investment Group Partnered With Alleged
Perpetrators Of $8 Billion Ponzi Scheme

By Lee Fang on Nov 1, 2011 at 9:30 am

Mitt Romney and his son Tagg Romney. Tagg is the managing partner to
Solamere Capital, a firm that invested in a new company employing
brokers accused of taking part in the Allen Stanford Ponzi scheme.
Mitt Romney, his son Tagg, and Romney’s chief fundraiser, Spencer Zwick,
have extensive financial and political ties to three men who allegedly
participated in an $8.5 billion Ponzi scheme. A few months after the
Ponzi scheme collapsed, a firm financed by Mitt Romney and run by his
son and chief fundraiser partnered with the three men and created a new
“wealth management business” as a subsidiary.

In an exclusive interview with ThinkProgress, Tagg Romney confirmed
their business relationship, but falsely claimed that the men were
cleared of any wrongdoing associated with the Ponzi scheme. Tagg Romney
told ThinkProgress that his three partners collected about $15,000 from
their involvement in the Ponzi scheme. Court documents obtained by
ThinkProgress show that the legal proceedings are ongoing and the men
made over $1.6 million selling fraudulent CDs to investors.

The Ponzi Scheme

In 2009, prosecutors announced charges against the Stanford Financial
Group, which managed a portfolio of $8.5 billion, for running a
“massive, ongoing fraud” against its investors. The Ponzi scheme bust
was one of the largest in recent history, second only to Bernie Madoff,
who perpetrated a fraud estimated to be around $17 billion. The Stanford
Ponzi scheme wiped out the savings of thousands, including many American
retirees across the country. In Texas, 1290 people lost their retirement
savings because of the Stanford Ponzi scheme; in Louisiana, several
hundred reportedly suffered the same fate.

The Romney Business Connection

Solamere Capital, the investment company founded by Tagg Romney with
seed money from his father, Mitt Romney and other investors.
Launched in 2008 by Romney’s son Tagg and a few others, including Mitt
Romney’s chief fundraiser Spencer Zwick, Solamere Capital is a “fund of
funds,” meaning that it primarily invests in other investment companies,
like private equity groups.

Mitt Romney himself made a $10 million initial seed investment in
Solamere Capital and his personal financial disclosure forms reveal that
he has received between $100,000 and $1 million in returns from his
stake in Solamere. Romney has come under fire for refusing to release
his tax returns, which would likely reveal additional details about his
financial relationship with Solamere Capital.