According to the NY Times they were envisioned as low-key, across-the-pond
fund-raisers that would allow Mitt Romney to extract campaign cash from
expatriates in London by night as he played statesman by day. But the two receptions that Mr. Romney, the
presumptive Republican nominee, will hold for donors next week during a swing
through Europe are turning into an ill-timed public relations headache for him.
Several of the events’ hosts are top execs at banks tied to Libor,
the interest rate-fixing scandal that is now engulfing London’s financial and
political world, linking Mr. Romney, however superficially, to a messy moment
in the continuing debate over Wall Street excesses.
The former CEO and a top lobbyist for Barclays, the bank at
the center of the scandal, helped organize a Romney fund-raiser. The former CEO
Robert E. Diamond Jr., has since withdrawn his name as the event’s co-host. The
bank’s lobbyist, Patrick J. Durkin, remains a co-chairman: he has bundled $1.1
million for Mr. Romney from friends and business associates, more than any
other lobbyist, according to federal records……
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