Obama campaign: ‘Severe consequences’ if Romney committed felony with Bain lies 
 
 By David Edwards 
 
 Thursday, July 12, 2012 12:30 EDT 
 
 Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney may be guilty of federal felony if he lied to the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) about when he ceded control of Bain Capital, President Barack Obama’s campaign suggested on Thursday. 
 
 The Boston Globe reported on Thursday that SEC documents showed that Romney continued to serve as Bain’s “sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president” until 2002 — even though he has repeatedly claimed that he left the company in 1999. 
 
 In an attempt to defend against claims that Romney was Bain’s CEO during the period that the company invested in firms that moved American jobs to countries like China, FactCheck.org may have accidentally revealed that the GOP candidate committed a “federal felony.” 
 
 “In fact, if the Obama campaign were correct, Romney would be guilty of a federal felony by certifying on federal financial disclosure forms that he left active management of Bain Capital in February 1999,” FactCheck.org wrote before the The Boston Globe‘s report came to light. 
 
 Obama campaign lawyer Robert Bauer noted on Thursday that there could be “severe consequences” for individuals and companies that lied to the SEC. 
 
 “If in fact as he now claims that he was not active with the company, that he was not the controlling person that is described here, that means that these statements are false and as I said, there are very, very serious legal consequences that would follow,” Bauer explained. 
 
 “Of particular consequence would be a misrepresentation that involves a controlling person,” he added. “And as these representations show, Romney is the controlling person. You know, he is the person who is the sole stockholder, the chairman of the board, the chief executive officer and the president. And the consequences for the controlling person of this sort of potential misrepresentation — and frankly on this record, it appears by his own words — absolute misrepresentation because he’s now saying none of this matters, none of this is true.” 
 
 “[It's] very, very serious. And in the normal course would subject somebody in this position to every manner of investigation with all the consequences that you can imagine that would follow.” 
 
 For its part, the Romney campaign has claimed that the Globe article is simply incorrect. 
 
 “The article is not accurate,” Romney press secretary Andrea Saul said on Thursday. “As Bain Capital has said, as Governor Romney has said, and as has been confirmed by independent fact checkers multiple times, Governor Romney left Bain Capital in February of 1999 to run the Olympics and had no input on investments or management of companies after that point.” 
 
 And Romney adviser Matt McDonald told Politico that the FactCheck.org analysis had been misunderstood. 
 
 “FactCheck was saying, if Mitt Romney was actively managing Bain, as the Globe asserts, and he certified that he wasn’t actively managing Bain, then he would be guilty of a federal felony,” McDonald said. “They are not saying that he would be guilty of a federal felony [just] for saying he left in 1999.” ||||| Mitt Romney's campaign said today a Boston Globe article reporting that he remained CEO of Bain Capital longer than he has stated is "inaccurate." 
 
 "As Bain Capital has said, as Governor Romney has said, and as has been confirmed by independent fact checkers multiple times, Governor Romney left Bain Capital in February of 1999 to run the Olympics and had no input on investments or management of companies after that point," said Andrea Saul, a Romney spokeswoman. 
 
 Bain Capital issued its own statement, saying Romney had "no involvement" in the firm's management or investment activities after February 1999. 
 
 The Boston Globe story, in today's editions, cites documents from the Securities and Exchange Commission that show Romney remained chairman and CEO of Bain for three years "beyond the date he said he ceded control, even creating five new investment partnerships during that time." 
 
 Romney has frequently pointed to his work at Bain as an example of why he is better than Obama when it comes to creating jobs and boosting the economy. 
 
 The article is being circulated by President Obama's campaign team as evidence that Romney should be blamed for job losses and bankruptcies at firms Bain invested in after 1999. Workers at a shuttered steel mill in Kansas City, for example, have appeared in Obama ads. 
 
 "This puts him at the center of responsibility for troubling investments involving outsourcing and bankruptcies. It also raises serious questions about why he misrepresented the date of his 'departure,' and whether he is concealing his tax returns because there is still more about this period and beyond that he doesn't want people to know," said Stephanie Cutter, deputy campaign manager for Obama. 
 
 The Boston newspaper story follows another in Mother Jones magazine about a Bain Capital investment that also cited SEC documents and raised issues about when Romney left the company. Talking Points Memo wrote about SEC filings from 2000 and 2001 that showed Romney listed his "principal occupation" as "managing director" of Bain Capital. 
 
 The Romney response to the Globe article includes numerous links to stories by Factcheck.org and The Washington Post that back up its assertion that Romney left the company in 1999. 
 
 The Romney campaign also notes that the Globe story hinges on a quote from a former SEC commissioner who was appointed by President Carter.
– If Mitt Romney wasn't actually Bain Capital's CEO in 2002, there could be "very, very serious legal consequences," an Obama campaign lawyer told reporters yesterday. Romney has said publicly that he left Bain in 1999, but the Boston Globe yesterday reported that Bain SEC filings indicate he controlled the company until 2002. If he wasn't actually in charge, which his campaign continues to insist, then he would appear to have committed a felony by misrepresenting his position to the SEC, Raw Story reports. "[It's] very, very serious," Obama lawyer Robert Bauer said on a conference call. "And in the normal course would subject somebody in this position to every manner of investigation with all the consequences that you can imagine." Politico also notes that while running for governor in 2002, Romney said he often returned to Massachusetts for "business trips" and "board meetings." At the time, that was in Romney's best interests because there were questions about his residency and eligibility to run for governor.