Firm Romney Founded Is Tied to Chinese Surveillance
Source: The New York Times
As the Chinese government forges ahead on a multibillion-dollar effort to blanket the country with surveillance cameras, one American company stands to profit: Bain Capital, the private equity firm founded by Mitt Romney.
In December, a Bain-run fund in which a Romney family blind trust has holdings purchased the video surveillance division of a Chinese company that claims to be the largest supplier to the governments Safe Cities program, a highly advanced monitoring system that allows the authorities to watch over university campuses, hospitals, mosques and movie theaters from centralized command posts.
The Bain-owned company, Uniview Technologies, produces what it calls infrared antiriot cameras and software that enable police officials in different jurisdictions to share images in real time through the Internet. Previous projects have included an emergency command center in Tibet that provides a solid foundation for the maintenance of social stability and the protection of peoples peaceful life, according to Univiews Web site.
Such surveillance systems are often used to combat crime and the manufacturer has no control over whether they are used for other purposes. But human rights advocates say in China they are also used to intimidate and monitor political and religious dissidents. There are video cameras all over our monastery, and their only purpose is to make us feel fear, said Loksag, a Tibetan Buddhist monk in Gansu Province. He said the cameras helped the authorities identify and detain nearly 200 monks who participated in a protest at his monastery in 2008.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/16/world/asia/bain-capital-tied-to-surveillance-push-in-china.html
think
(11,641 posts)The financial disclosure forms Mr. Romney filed last August show that a blind trust in the name of his wife, Ann Romney, held a relatively small stake of between $100,000 and $250,000 in the Bain Capital Asia fund that purchased Uniview.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/16/world/asia/bain-capital-tied-to-surveillance-push-in-china.html?_r=1
Igel
(35,337 posts)The asset (Bain) might have been purchased (or by now sold) without the knowledge of the owner--Romney's wife.
Or perhaps Romney doesn't abide by what must be DU common opinion, that a wife can only act on behalf of and with the explicit permission of her husband, especially in fnancial matters. Wives have no independence of any kind. That's just because they're wives, I guess. (/sarcasm)
Or perhaps Bain didn't check with a minor investor over whether the purchase a share of the Chinese company was was okay.
It's even possible that between the reporting period included in the August '11 filing (which would probably not include August '11) and when the Chinese company assets were bought the fiduciaires disinvested in Bain. Unlikely, but possible--esp. considering the debate over Bain last fall. I don't know if fiduciaries should take into account the non-investment interests of an owner's mate.
But most importantly, if the trust really is a blind trust, then Romney's wife would not be informed of the holdings in her investment account. If she got a copy of the filing, she still wouldn't have the authority to order the sale or purchase of any asset. "Blind trusts" are to prevent conflicts of interest: If you own shares in Solyndra then any vote or policy that influences Solyndra is a conflict of interest. That might involve a lot of issues, some of which you might not even spot until it's on the front page of the NYT. Blind trusts mean that even if you voted on Solyndra you'd have no idea if it benefited you.