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Romney’s net worth pegged at $190-$250M


Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney eats a pork chop on a stick yesterday at the Iowa State Fair.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff
08/12/2011 4:06 PM

DES MOINES – Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is worth between $190 million and $250 million, his campaign said today after filing a personal financial disclosure statement with the Federal Election Commission.

That dollar figure would make him the wealthiest candidate in the 2012 White House race, eclipsing President Obama and with his only possible rival being former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, who has yet to release his disclosure form. He is among the heirs to the Huntsman Corp. fortune.

Romney’s financial disclosure form can be found here [ http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/Romney%20financial%20disclosure%20from%20Boston%20Globe.pdf ].

Romney’s statement provides the most detailed look yet at the former venture capitalist’s finances during the past four years yet shows his net worth essentially unchanged over that time.

Although rendered in broad ranges, the release suggests that his income was not hit the same way many Americans experienced the downturn in the economy. Romney has never released his tax returns, and has declined requests to do so this year, which would offer a fuller picture of his fortune.

Romney, who was criticized earlier this year for saying to a group of voters that he was “unemployed,” earned nearly $114,000 last year for serving on the board at Marriott International.

In the past year, Romney also received substantial speaking fees, including from some financial firms that he has sought to protect from more government regulations. For those speaking engagements, he was paid anywhere from $11,475 to speak at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif., to $68,000 to speak at the National Franchisee Association in Las Vegas.

He was also was paid speaking fees by Barclay’s Bank, Goldentree Asset Management, HP Healthcare Services, and Quest Educational Foundation. A Get Motivated Seminar, via satellite link in Boston, yielded $29,750 for Romney.

“He has occasionally received compensation for speeches and those have been disclosed in accordance with the law,” said Gail Gitcho, the Romney campaign’s communications director.

Romney’s wife, Ann, also owns horses in California worth between $250,001 and $500,000, according to the forms.

Ann Romney has frequently promoted the use of horse riding as a therapeutic way of coping with multiple sclerosis, from which she suffers. The horses she owns engage in competitions and earn prizes, according to Gitcho, so they are required to disclose Romney’s share of an limited liability company that owns them.

The Romneys also have investments in a wide range of areas, including consumer staples like electronics and office supplies, large oil companies, and financial, health care, and telecommunications companies.

His investments are held in a blind trust, which he created when he became governor of Massachusetts in January 2003. The trustee is Brad Malt, at the Boston office of the law firm Ropes & Gray.

“They do not control the investment of these assets,” Gitcho said in a statement. “The assets are under the control and overall management of a trustee.”

The Romneys also have more than $1 million invested in Solamere Founders Fund, which is run by the eldest of their five sons, Tagg, and hold between $250,001 and $500,000 in gold metal.

Mitt Romney has between $250,001 and $500,000 in Bank of America cash accounts, and he continues to earn millions from a retirement deal with Bain Capital, the venture firm that he started in 1984 and left in 1999.

Romney also earned between $100,001 and $1 million in profits from his book, “No Apologies.” That money was divided evenly among six charities: Joey Fund, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Sabin Children’s Foundation, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Dana Farber Cancer Institute Jimmy Fund, and Homes for Our Troops.

In 2010, Mitt Romney donated his book profits to three different charities: Homes for Our Troops, Dana Farber Cancer Institute Jimmy Fund, and Boston Boys & Girls Club.

The form filed with the FEC today indicated that the Romneys had financial holdings in a range of between $85 million and $264 million. The campaign said a more accurate range was between $190 million and $250 million, but would not provide any further detail.

Romney so far has not put any of his own money into his presidential campaign, as he did four years ago.

About half of the holdings four years ago belonged to Mitt Romney, and theoretically could have been liquidated and used for his campaign. The other half belonged to his wife. The campaign yesterday would not say whether the split continues to be about half-and-half.

All federal candidates are required to file the disclosures within 30 days of declaring their candidates, but they can seek two 45-day extensions, which Romney did.

That meant Romney’s forms were due on a Friday – typically a day when politicians announce news they don’t want to promote – and when the political class was consumed with the Iowa Straw Poll taking place tomorrow.

Matt Viser can be reached at [e-mail].

© 2011 NY Times Co.

http://www.boston.com/Boston/politicalintelligence/2011/08/romney-net-worth-pegged/lHBpKxaHYWDhJzOiCuA7fI/index.html [with comments]

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