Our political betters - laws for thee but not for me
From
National Review:
Terry McAuliffe and the Rise of the House of Ugland
Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic fundraiser-turned-gubernatorial-candidate, is closely linked to a company headquartered in a Cayman Islands building long derided as a tax shelter by President Barack Obama and other prominent Democrats.
The company, Leaf Clean Energy, trades on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol LEAF and describes itself as �a renewable energy and sustainable technology investment firm.� In its most recent report to investors, the company listed as its official address a post-office box in Ugland House, a Grand Cayman office building that serves as the nominal headquarters for nearly 19,000 companies. Ugland House has attracted considerable criticism as a tax shelter � so much so that its official website is largely devoted to defending the practice of incorporating on its premises. Among its critics is President Obama, who lambasted the building in a May 2009 speech on tax reform:On the campaign, I used to talk about the outrage of a building in the Cayman Islands that had over 12,000 business � businesses claim this building as their headquarters. And I�ve said before, either this is the largest building in the world or the largest tax scam in the world.
During the 2012 presidential campaign, McAuliffe himself suggested that GOP nominee Mitt Romney�s use of tax shelters created the impression if not the reality of impropriety. In a January 2012 symposium on the presidential race, McAuliffe called on Romney to release his tax returns:I think there�s something to be said for getting � it�s now part of the narrative, and the biggest problem for Governor Romney is Republican leaders are coming out every day . . . So he�s got to get it so that his own party is now saying there must be a problem. There aren�t � nobody knows anything; people are just speculating. I mean, the guesstimate would be, I mean, you know, he�s been in business, and at the time tax shelters were legal, and maybe there�s some things in there where he didn�t pay taxes. He was legally entitled not to do it, but by not putting it out there, you�re letting everybody�s imagination run wild. His biggest problem are Republican governors now saying, release the documents. I would lance it.
Nobody is doing anything illegal here -- having investments in overseas companies is still perfectly legal but the Democrats are painting it with a tar brush all the while doing the same thing themselves.
The article goes on to say how McAuliffe is using this corporation to set up subsidized green energy plants in the US -- our tax dollars are going into his green energy scam. He is getting wealthy off our work.
Posted by DaveH at July 10, 2013 11:57 AM