friends got out their fancy checkbooks and started inking zeros, even though they didn t make their 50 million goal. one of the big donations he got was from w. spannl llc. now, that is a little mysterious. its headquarters are listed as being on madison avenue in new york city. but this group, this spann company, was only created when it was registered with the state of delaware, land of mysterious corporations, back in march. the incorporation papers were filed by this young boston lawyer. we don t know who her client was or what this new corporation planned to do as a business. we do know that this particular lawyer specializes in something called wealth transfer strategies. and the very next month, after she filed the incorporation papers for w. spann llc, they did in fact transfer a whole bunch of wealth. in april, w. spann transferred $1 million. not to mr. romney s campaign directly, but to a pac being run for his benefit. there s a giant contribute
elections officials, two weeks before that pac was to reveal its donors, this company shut down. its wealth transfer specialist lawyer lawyer filed this certificate of cancellation with the state of delaware. so whatever this company was supposed to be, whatever it was, after founding itself, submitting a single $1 million check on mitt romney s behalf, the mysterious w. spann llc was then officially dissolved. that s all it did as a company. that s what the company was for, apparently, to deliver 1 million bucks for mitt romney s political benefit via a source that soon disappeared. a source that could not be traced. so where did that million dollars come from? who gave that money? mr. romney s old investment firm, bain capital, says w spann was not affiliated with them or anybody that works for them. next guess, anyone? was it a girl scout troop maybe? cookie sales this year i hear were great. could it have been the government of china maybe? how about a mexican drug cartel? how abou
there s bank of america. there s cemex. there s a lot of other blue chip firms that have this address. what we do know is i spoke to the management company at 590 madison avenue. they say they never heard of w spann and have no such tenant. why did you figure this out. why did you start chasing the w spann connection in the first place? what about it stood out to you? well, first of all, the million dollars. you don t see that every day. and when you see a huge check like that, it does kind of raise your eyebrows. and i saw this was filed in the restore our future filings with the f.e.c. late on friday. there were a couple stories over the weekend that said people couldn t explain where this was. and that got my juices going. we did a full lexisnexis search,
gray. one of ropes & gray s longtime clients is bain capital, the investment firm founded by mitt romney. the address listed for w span llc in the super pac s sec report is 590 madison avenue. the real estate company that manages 590 madison avenue has never heard of w spann llc, but bain capital does have offices at that building. bain capital said in an email, bain has many employees who actively participate in civic affairs, and they individually support candidates from both parties. the firm takes no position on
a rather emphatic denial to me said nobody at the firm is part of this entity. now, that does raise the question, could it be clients of the firm or could it be somebody else in 590 madison avenue? there s ubs. there s bank of america. there s cemex. there s a lot of other blue chip firms that have this address. what we do know is i spoke to the management company at 590 madison avenue. they say they never heard of w spann and have no such tenant. why did you figure this out. why did you start chasing the w spann connection in the first place? what about it stood out to you? well, first of all, the million dollars. you don t see that every day. and when you see a huge check like that, it does kind of raise your eyebrows. and i saw this was filed in the restore our future filings with the f.e.c. late on friday. there were a couple stories over the weekend that said people