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US election: Mitt Romney may have breached ethics laws through company linked to Paul Ryan's brother - Telegraph →

Mitt Romney may have breached state ethics laws as Governor of Massachusetts by holding a stake in a company that did lucrative work for his administration and was linked to the family of Paul Ryan, a Daily Telegraph investigation has found.

he Republican presidential candidate appears to have profited from a marketing company that was contracted by the state of Massachusetts after receiving $5 million (£3.2 million) in financial backing from Bain Capital, Mr Romney’s investment firm.

One of his vice-presidential candidate’s brothers, who is a former Bain consultant, was at the time of the investment a senior executive at the marketing company, Imagitas, which was co-founded by another former Bain executive.

Both Mr Romney and Tobin Ryan, who omits his work at Imagitas from his corporate biography, also apparently stood to benefit from the $230 million (£146 million) sale of the company in 2005, while Mr Romney remained in office.

Massachusetts law requires that all state employees divest themselves of financial interests in private sector contracts with state agencies. At the time, failure to do so could have resulted in a $2,000 (£1,273) fine or a 2.5-year prison sentence. The potential punishments are now stronger.

Asked repeatedly by The Daily Telegraph throughout this week whether Mr Romney had indeed profited from the company, had been aware of the potential conflict of interest, or had taken any action to avoid one, his campaign and Bain Capital declined to comment.

For three years from 1995, Tobin Ryan, who is now 47, was a senior manager at Bain & Company, the consulting firm where Mr Romney made his name. Mr Romney was at the time leading Bain Capital, the firm’s investment arm, inside the same Boston headquarters.

In March 1998, Mr Ryan left Bain to become a vice-president at Imagitas. The company had been co-founded by Tom Beecher, another former Bain consultant. Their company secured the $5 million (£3.2 million) from Bain Capital in June 2000. Mr Ryan declined to say if he was involved in the deal. Mr Beecher declined to be interviewed.

Imagitas itself donated $64,825 (£41,258) to the Republican Governors’ Association between Mr Romney’s appointment as vice-chairman in November 2004 and his stepping down as chairman at the end of 2006, according to filings with the I.R.S. After resigning at the end of his first and only term as Massachusetts governor, he launched his ultimately unsuccessful campaign for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.

Tobin Ryan has since 1997 donated $5,250 (£3,349) to his brother Paul’s congressional funds and other Republicans, according to F.E.C. filings.

h/t: The Daily Telegraph