Mitt Romney and Bain Capital

In October 1993, Bain Capital, co-founded by Mitt Romney, became majority shareholder in a steel mill that had been operating since 1888. Less than a decade later, the mill was padlocked and some 750 people lost their jobs. Workers were denied the severance pay and health insurance they'd been promised, and their pension benefits were cut by as much as $400 a month. A federal government insurance agency had to pay $44 million to bail out the company's underfunded pension plan. Bain profited on the deal, receiving $12 million on its $8 million initial investment and at least $4.5 million in consulting fees. Records show that Bain management was confronted several times about the fund's shortfall, which required funds from the federal Pension Benefits Guarantee Corp. The steel company declared bankruptcy on February 7, 2001, and said it would shut down the Kansas City plant, eliminating 750 jobs. The U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp, which insures company retirement plans, determined in 2002 that the company had underfunded its pension by $44 million. The federal agency, funded by corporate levies, stepped in to cover the basic pension payments, but not the supplement the union had negotiated as a hedge against the plant's closure.Romney continued receiving dividends from Bain after his departure. He accumulated a personal fortune of between $190 million and $250 million, according to campaign disclosure forms. Bain made at least $12 million on the steel company it created by merging the Kansas City mill with another in South Carolina before the new entity declared bankruptcy in 2001. Bain also collected an additional $900,000 a year through 1999 for management consulting services, public filings show. Union officials blame the Bain managers for saddling the company with too much debt for a capital-intensive, cyclical industry such as steel.