A central element in the Legend of Romney is that he "cleaned up" the Salt Lake City Olympics after a bribery scandal. We have previously seen on this blog how his contributions were exaggerated, as was the profit. Originally he claimed to take over facing a $120 million deficit and leave a $10 million profit, but by 2012 he had inflated these figures to $400 million deficit and $100 million profit (something he also did with his record as Massachusetts governor). None of these figures is remotely true - even the $10 million included post-Games contributions. By November I'm sure he'll be claiming a "billion dollar" turnaround in the Olympics. The Salt Lake Committee were keen to encourage this legend, selling pins with Mitt's photo. Utah Governor Mike Leavitt signalled to Mormons he was their boy when he was announced Romney as the new head of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. Romney now intends to make him head of his presidential transition unit.
Romney encouraged this clean up legend by firing the Salt Lake CFO under false pretenses and calling for a bribery conviction for his indicted predecessors. The CFO landed at Mrs. Fields and a Mormon judge threw out the bribery indictments on the grounds that bribery of foreigners is not against the law in Utah. But other than that, did Romney actually do anything to clean up the Utah Olympics?
The answer is no. He awarded key contracts to people in the bribery scandal, and they have rewarded him with millions in campaign contributions through the years. Romney, in short, was as dirty as anyone in the Salt Lake Games, which seamlessly fused the fascism of Mormon Utah with the fascism of the IOC.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/05/14/romney-s-shady-connections-from-salt-lake-olympics-still-paying-off.html
The total donations to Romney over the years from these two bribery scandal figures is $1.5 million.
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