Romney Worth As Much As $250 Million

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney speaks Monday, Aug. 13, 2007, at Great Basin College Theater in Elko, Nev. In his first public campaign stop in Nevada, Romney stressed his conservative credentials and, while critical of Washington, D.C., politics and handling of the Iraq war, avoided a direct slap at President Bush. (AP Photo/Elko Daily Free Press, Ross Andreson) (Ross Andreson - AP)

The 47-page federal report was something of a revelation for Romney as well.

Forced to open his blind trust, the Romneys _ and the world _ discovered precisely which stocks, bonds and mutual funds they own.

Among them: $2.5 million to $8 million in AB Svensk Exportkredit, a Swedish export credit corporation; and $1 million to $5 million in Eksportfinans ASA, a Norwegian financing corporation, and $100,000 to $250,000 in Russian energy giant Gazprom. Ann Romney's trust reported various Goldman Sachs investments of more than $1 million (spousal assets can be reported in less precise figures). Romney's trust has $3.5 million to $16 million in Goldman Sachs investments.

Malt said none of Romney's overseas investments are tax shelters or help reduce his federal tax obligations in any way. "They don't reduce income taxes, they don't defer income taxes," he said.

Malt is a Boston-based lawyer with the national law firm of Ropes & Gray and has been trustee for the Romney blind trusts since Romney became governor of Massachusetts in January 2003. He said the funds will now continue operating as blind trusts and that Romney will not be privy to any further transactions.

Asked while campaigning in Fresno, Calif., whether his enormous financial wealth kept him from appealing to average voters, Romney said his track record in establishing a scholarship program for top-achieving high school students and broadening access to health insurance in Massachusetts showed he "understood the hearts of people."

Romney has said he would give his annual presidential salary of $400,000 to charity.

Malt approved sales of millions of dollars of holdings during the past 18 months, most transactions that would be expected with a portfolio as large as that of the Romneys. Other sales, besides the Iran-related stocks, also helped avoid potential political embarrassment for Romney.

Among them were investments in gaming companies, including Ameristar Casinos and Harrahs Entertainment. Romney has been eager to present himself as the most socially conservative candidate in the field, decrying what he has said is the debasement of the culture.

Romney's blind trust also got rid of between $100,000 and $250,000 in stock in Schlumberger Ltd., the oilfield services company that does business in Sudan. Other presidential candidates, including Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Rudy Giuliani, have reassessed their holdings after discovering that funds they held invested in Schlumberger stock.

Boston Red Sox fans _ Romney among them _ may blanch at one of the stocks held by one of Ann Romney's blind trust funds: A Goldman Sachs Capital Partners Fund invests in the Yankees Entertainment and Sports network.

The report also highlights a continuing connection between Romney and Bain Capital, the venture capital firm he founded and which he left in 1999 to assume leadership of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

Earlier this year, Romney played down any lingering connection after The Associated Press reported Bain Capital and Bain & Co., the management consulting firm where Romney used to work, had links to Iranian business interests. At the time, a spokesman highlighted Romney's 1999 resignation from Bain, while Romney himself said his divestment call applied only to future activity, not past dealings.

A notation in Romney's filing, however, says that under a noncompete agreement with Bain Capital, Romney retains a "passive profit share as a retired partner in certain Bain Capital entities formed on or prior to Feb. 11, 2009."

A note in Romney's report states that Romney asked for a listing of Bain's underlying holdings, but, like other funds in his blind trust, the fund managers said the information was confidential and declined to provide it.

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Associated Press Writer Glen Johnson in Boston and Garance Burke in Fresno, Calif., contributed to this report.