Romney Hid Bermuda Company For 15 Years To Evade Tax
A new report has revealed that US Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has used an offshore company based in Bermuda to bolster his wealth.
According to the relegation by the Associated Press, Romney has not reported the company, Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors Ltd., to state or federal authorities for 15 years.
“Mitt Romney could be the first president in history to stash millions offshore so the American people deserve an explanation as to why he chose to invest in other countries known as tax havens rather than the United States,” the Obama campaign raised the questions about Romney’s offshore accounts in a Sunday statement.
President Barack Obama’s campaign and top Democrats have launched a coordinated attack on Romney, saying he should release more personal tax records.
“I’d really like to see Mitt Romney release more than one year of tax records, because there’s been disturbing reports recently that he’s got a Bermuda corporation, a secretive Bermuda corporation that no one knows anything about, investments in the Caymans, kind of Swiss bank account,” Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said on Sunday.
Schultz raised the question that “why does an American businessman need a Swiss bank account and secretive investments like that?”
“This is a guy whose slogan is ‘believe in America’ when it should be ‘business in Bermuda,'” said Robert Gibbs, a senior campaign adviser to Obama.
Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, senior Senator Dick Durbin and other Obama campaign aides also criticized Romney, calling him a “secretive” businessman who was hiding much of his wealth, estimated to be around USD 250 million, to avoid the taxman.
Under pressure from Republican primary opponents, Romney has released his 2010 returns and estimates for 2011 but refused to unveil the taxes he paid in the previous years.
Romney will face Obama, who is under pressure over the country’s slow economic growth and disappointing June job report, in the November 6 presidential election as polls indicate a close race.
Source presstv.
