Gawker's Bain files: 7 revelations about Mitt Romney's finances

It took a site best known for snarky gossip to lift the lid on Romney's investment portfolio, giving us a peek at how Mitt gets those enviably low tax rates

Mitt Romney
(Image credit: AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Democrats, and even many frustrated Republicans, have been hounding Mitt Romney all summer to release more of his tax returns and give Americans a better sense of how he manages his estimated $250 million fortune. Of course, the GOP presidential hopeful has insisted that he'll only release his 2010 and 2011 returns. But now, Gawker has stepped in, WikiLeaks-style, with a dump of more than 950 pages of confidential financial documents about 18 Bain Capital investment funds and three hedge funds that hold at least $10 million of the Romneys' wealth. "Together, they reveal the mind-numbing, maze-like, and deeply opaque complexity with which Romney has handled his wealth," says Gawker's John Cook, including "exotic tax-avoidance schemes available only to the preposterously wealthy." Since the internal audits, financial statements, and private investor letters are "exceedingly complicated," Gawker is crowd-sourcing the "Bain Files" dump, asking readers and journalists to see if anything jumps out. Here are seven revelations unearthed so far:

1. His Bain retirement funds were created long after he retired

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