Mitt Romney may have breached ethics laws through company linked to Paul Ryan's brother

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-election/9483845/US-election-Mitt-Romney-may-have-breached-ethics-laws-through-company-linked-to-Paul-Ryans-brother.html

By Jon Swaine, Washington
7:57PM BST 17 Aug 2012

The Republican presidential candidate appears to have profited from a marketing company that was contracted by the state of Massachusetts after receiving $5 million (£3.2 million) in financial backing from Bain Capital, Mr Romney’s investment firm.

One of his vice-presidential candidate's brothers, who is a former Bain consultant, was at the time of the investment a senior executive at the marketing company, Imagitas, which was co-founded by another former Bain executive.

Both Mr Romney and Tobin Ryan, who omits his work at Imagitas from his corporate biography, also apparently stood to benefit from the $230 million (£146 million) sale of the company in 2005, while Mr Romney remained in office.

Massachusetts law requires that all state employees divest themselves of financial interests in private sector contracts with state agencies. At the time, failure to do so could have resulted in a $2,000 (£1,273) fine or a 2.5-year prison sentence. The potential punishments are now stronger.