From the Examiner
Mitt Romney's involvement in a bitter divorce case between Staples' founder -- Tom Stemberg -- and his ex-wife -- Maureen Sullivan Stemberg -- is the October surprise that the Boston Globe and attorney Gloria Allred are playing a role in. According to an update by TMZ Wednesday, a judge in Boston deciding on whether to unseal records and lift a gag order from the 1991 case will not be made until Thursday.
When the Staples founder was divorcing his first wife, she allegedly got far less money than what the growing business was worth -- all on account of Romney's deposition. Allred is representing Maureen in the hopes that everything from the ugly court battle can be exposed.
A source told TMZ that at the time Romney testified that Staples was "overvalued" and "I didn't place a great deal of credibility in the forecast of the company's future." This was supposedly a lie to help out his friend in the divorce.
Romney was the owner and CEO of Bain Capital at the time of the proceedings, Boston.com reports. It was a private equity firm that invested $650,000 into Staples as a way of pushing the office supply company to open its first store in Brighton back in 1986. In all, Bain Capital invested an estimated $2.5 million in the business and turned a $13 million profit when Staples went public in 1989.
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MZ reports that just weeks after Stemberg divorced Maureen, he and Romney cashed in their stock at Goldman Sachs for a huge fortune. Maureen wound up with very little partly due to Romney's testimony.
Robert G. Jones -- an attorney representing Romney -- said the Republican presidential candidate "has no position on whether his testimony should be unsealed."
A rep for Tom Stemberg said this:
"Over the past several years, the judge in this case has made it very clear that the gag order imposed should not be violated. We have never violated this order and will continue to adhere to the court’s ruling on this case."
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