So far, the attacks from the Obama campaign on Bain Capital and Mitt Romney’s business experience have concentrated on the layoffs at Bain-backed companies. But in a conference call this morning with reporters, Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt also portrayed creditors as victims of Bain.
Saying that Ampad (the Bain-owned company whose decision to buy and close an Indiana plant is the focus of an Obama attack video this morning) unsecured creditors had ultimately received a fifth of a cent for every dollar they were owed, LaBolt remarked, “Romney and his partners got many multiples of their initial investment for driving a company into bankruptcy and driving workers out of a job, and his creditors get to wait 11 years to find out they’re getting a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of what they’re owed.”
UPDATE: A Romney aide notes that by the time Ampad went bankrupt in 2000, Mitt Romney had was already on leave from day-to-day dealings at Bain, as he had left in 1999 to run the Olympics. Furthermore by 2000, Bain owned only around 35 percent of Ampad common stock.