So the Globe story is out about Mitt Romney's testimony in a 1991 hearing and deposition related to a Massachusetts Norfolk County divorce. While The Globe doesn't use the term directly, the implication and evidence is clear.....Romney lied.
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Essentially the transcripts tell the story that Romney testified on behalf of his friend, Tom Stemberg, about the value of Staples stock. Apparently there was some post-divorce litigation in Stemberg's divorce from his first wife Maureen in which the ex-wife claimed she hadn't received fair value for the Staples stock in 1988.
By the time the litigation happened in connection with the by then concluded divorce, it was 1991. Romney testified that she got fair value for the stock even though he took it public (as did his very close friend Stemberg) barely a year later at ten times the value. Romney testified there was "very little chance" the stock would skyrocket a year earlier.
Stemberg's ex-wife received $2.25 and $2.48 per share in 1988. A year later, in 1989, it went public at $22.50 value, exactly ten times of the first shares she sold. Romney essentially argued Bain had made a mistake investing in the company at the time of the divorce proceeding, but a year later made a huge profit off taking it public. Its been the premier centerpiece of Romney's time at Bain used in his various campaigns since.
Romney was then to Tom Stember, and remains to this day as Stemberg spoke at this year's GOP convention in favorable terms about his friend Mitt Romney.
Apparently he owes him big time.
http://bostonglobe.com/...
Edit: I would assume the ex-wife's claim was that in 1988 when they got divorced whatever financial info Stemberg disclosed led her to believe the stock was worth $2.25 or $2.48. But when Bain sold it in 1989 at $22.50 per share, she probably re-opened the claim and said he didn't disclose enough that led me to know it would be worth that much in a year.
That's where Romney came in and testified for his friend that, yep, it was only worth $2.25 in 1988 even though we took it public a year later at ten times that.