Pfeiffer reports : "Hustler magazine publisher, and self-described free speech activist, Larry Flynt is offering $1 million for anyone who will provide him with Mitt Romney's financial records."

Controversial Hustler publisher Larry Flynt. (photo: Inquisitor)

Larry Flynt Offering $1 Million for Romney's Financial Records

By Eric Pfeiffer, Yahoo! News

09 September 12

ustler magazine publisher, and self-described free speech activist, Larry Flynt is offering $1 million for anyone who will provide him with Mitt Romney's financial records. Flynt, 69, has purchased full-page ads in Sunday's Washington Post and Tuesday's, September 11 issue of USA Today.

"What is he hiding?" the ad text reads, "Maybe, now, we'll find out." The ad also includes a phone number and email address where anyone with information can contact Flynt.

A press release credited to Hustler says Flynt is "offering up to a million dollars in cash for documented evidence concerning Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney's unreleased tax returns and/or details of his offshore assets, bank accounts and business partnerships."

Romney has only agreed to release his 2010 and 2011 tax returns so far.

On Friday, the Secret Service and FBI announced they are investigating an anonymous letter from an individual claiming to have stolen copies of Romney's tax returns. The letter reportedly demands $1 million in hard to trace Internet funds. Romney's accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, has denied that any records were stolen.

Flynt, a registered Democrat who once ran for president as a Republican, is no stranger to politics. And he's certainly no stranger to offering $1 million rewards for his various political interests. He's made similar offers against everything including a request to debunk the Warren Commission's investigation into the death of John F. Kennedy to most recently asking for evidence supporting his belief that Texas Governor Rick Perry was guilty of infidelity.

Back during the impeachment trial of then-President Bill Clinton, Flynt made a $1 million offer for evidence of marital infidelity against Republican members of the House who were leading the trial against Clinton. That offer led to incoming House Speaker Bob Livingston resigning after evidence of his own affair was publicly revealed.

In 2007, Flynt offered a financial reward for evidence showing that Louisiana Republican Senator David Vitter had cheated on his wife. Vitter has remained in office, even after the evidence was made public.

Back in 2003, Flynt was one of several atypical candidates to run in the California gubernatorial recall election to replace Democrat Gray Davis.

Flynt has also run into some political troubles of his own recently. In August, California's Fair Political Practices Commission accused him of failing to report campaign donations in a timely manner that Flynt made to a state assembly candidate. However, Flynt was not fined by the agency since he filed his report immediately after the complaint was issued.

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+72 # pernsey 2012-09-09 12:11

That would make my day, to have Mittens tax reports turn up, due to this offer!

+53 # phrixus 2012-09-09 13:10

Ya just gotta love 'ol Larry. At least he's trying something practical.

+47 # bingers 2012-09-09 13:23

Hate to see someone paying someone to break the law, but if it prevents Romney from ever holding office again, well....

+3 # Vermont Grandma 2012-09-10 11:17

I don't think it would be breaking the law for Flynt to publicize Romney's tax returns, so long as he didn't get someone to hack into the IRS database. Lawyers and accountants are famous for inadvertently disclosing confidential information- it's a licensing issue, not a criminal offense. But, for a $1 mil, who cares about working again?

0 # kalpal 2012-09-11 04:45

Not even the IRS can easily get into into its own databases. maybe a hardworking hacker could. Some years back the IRS was reputed to have 13 data systems that were not searchable through any single search engine. It took the IRS several months to conclude that I did indeed make a payment. They denied it at first but finally acquiesced and credited that payment to my account. A former schoolmate was hired by the IRS since he was a CPA and and had graduated at the top of his class. He went back to bagging groceries after 6 months at the IRS.

+52 # TrueAmericanPatriot 2012-09-09 15:56

GO GET 'IM LARRY! I'm sure you will find some dirt on LYIN'- RYAN, as well! If you up the coffer to $2,ooo,ooo, I believe you will really get a response. Any disgruntled Bain Capital employees need a serious bonus these days? Just askin'!

+51 # RMDC 2012-09-09 17:34

It is pretty cynical that the mainstream media caught on to the teabaggers' demand that Obama release his birth certificate, but they cannot exert any pressure on Romney to release his tax returns. I thought all candidates for political office had to file a financial disclosure statement. Lying on such a statement is a felony.

I would bet $1 million dollars that Romney's tax returns show some criminal tax evasions. Of course, I don't have $1 million but since we will never see Romeny's tax returns, it is a pretty safe wager.

Billionaires like Romeny are exempt from the laws. So were the Bushes. No one asks about their wealth or where it came from. Thanks to Craig Unger, we know -- from the Saudi Royal Family. Romney probably gets money from Netanyahoo.

+24 # AMLLLLL 2012-09-10 06:18

I'm convinced that Romney is hiding the previous years'(2008-200 9) because he claims to have lived in his son's unfinished basement, so used that address, and voted in 2008 for Scott Brown. Voter fraud is a felony. While it's politically distasteful to use every tax avoidance technique, voter fraud (how ironic is THAT?) would be, well, felonious.

+6 # Vermont Grandma 2012-09-10 11:21

Was his son's basement unfinished? Wouldn't the assessment records show this? Haven't there already been tax returns released which showed that he claimed to be living in the basement (or voter registration records)? I thought that the claim of living in his son's basement was pretty transparently hooey when I first heard it, esp. since he has so much dough. But if the basement wasn't even finished, that's even more interesting. And I hope that the Mass tax department is combing its records to assure that Mitt and Ann paid taxes for those years he claimed Mass residency via his son's home, as well as investigating voter fraud.
Wouldn't it be hysterically funny if the voter-fraud drumbeat which has resulted in voter ID laws in so many states actually disclosed that Romney had engaged in voter fraud. Perhaps Larry Flynt could make another reward offer for info about that...

+1 # AMLLLLL 2012-09-10 18:53

Yes, Grandma, I'm wondering how difficult it would be to trace state or city taxes in that timeframe; what a hoot!

0 # kalpal 2012-09-11 04:50

Why do you think he destroyed every comuterized record of his time in the government? He had much to hide. I don't believe anyone else has ever done that in US history. To say its suspicious is tantamount to insist that sun rises in the east.

0 # kalpal 2012-09-11 04:46

Nice bit of anti-Jewish bigotry there. So who taught you such drivel?

+32 # maddave 2012-09-09 20:04

If anyone in the USA recognizes REAL obscenity, it is Larry Flint. Although I cannot speak for him officially, I believe that he and i regard plain ol', down home recreational sex to be far less offensive, objectionable and, yes, obscene than the willful, wanton destruction of companies, jobs, our middle class and The American Dream for the needless personal gain of the already-rich!

I say BRAVO, Larry, for your backing your conclusion with your pocketbook! Although many folks do not agree with you, that's their problem.
You ARE a true American!

+29 # RMDC 2012-09-10 02:40

Good point -- the real obscenity in the US is the way "venture capitalists" do their business. They are better called "vulture capitalists." Pretty disgusting.

+18 # Regina 2012-09-09 20:08

A mere million? That's peanut shells -- not even peanuts! -- to Romney. Flynt is an indigent by comparison.

+29 # anntares 2012-09-09 20:43

Reminds me of Larry Flynt, Michael Moore and Geraldo Rivera during MonicaGate - they said they were not pro-Democract or pro-Clinton as much as they were anti-hypocrite then offered $1 million to anyone who would give info on extra-marital dalliances by the men trying to get Clinton impeached. They found out that Congressman Henry Hyde, leader of the pack, had a mistress and child (his excuse: "I was young" - 40); that Sen Robert Barr had licked something sweet off the boobs of some young woman at a party; that Newt Gingrich had affairs before he divorced his several wives, forced one to have an abortion so he could get a divorce and marry another; and when Gingrich resigned, they found out that his proposed replacement (don't remember his name - maybe Livingston) had chased a staffer around his office - they had to find another replacement).

Glad Flynt is now asking for openness and honesty before people vote for someone who may be hiding money offshore to avoid US taxes while threatening to take away the benefits of Obamacare for the poor, the aged and the young

+5 # Cassandra2012 2012-09-10 12:04

Newt (the poster boy for 'family values') also handed his wife divorce papers as she came out of anesthesia for a mastectomy for breast cancer so he could marry his mistress ... .

+8 # Old Uncle Dave 2012-09-09 22:07

Maybe Larry could get the returns from these guys.
http://www.examiner.com/article/hackers-claim-to-have-romney-s-tax-returns-will-release-sept-28

+12 # RMDC 2012-09-10 02:43

This is interesting. I have a feeling that the FBI or Homeland security is after these guys really hard right now. They will turn up dead before anything is released.

+32 # the wizard 2012-09-10 01:56

If Romney's tax returns show that he did better under Obama than he did under Bush his argument to double down on Bush's insane policies will prove that Mitt is insane. The people have the right to know if a candidate for president is insane. The people have the right to know if the candidate's running mate is insane.
If Romney and Ryan reveal their tax returns the American people will get a better idea as to their mental health.
We can't afford another insane Administration after Bush/Cheney.

+27 # Scott479 2012-09-10 03:09

Americans should get behind this-offer up an amount alongside this million to create an irresistible prize to sink the snot-nosed pencil necked Romney once and for all with an outing of what Lawrence O'Donnell says was likely a felony by Mitt that was avoided during an amnesty period the IRS granted to criminals.

+7 # Corvette-Bob 2012-09-10 09:17

I really doubt that anyone has stolen his tax returns but if so I will be glad to see them especially to see if Mitt Romney paid a fine for avoiding taxes in Switzerland.Als o, did he receive a tax benefit by hidding his money in tax havens over the years. Finally, I believe that President Obama is sitting on some tax information regarding Romney that is going to come out before the election.

+3 # maddave 2012-09-10 14:59

Count on "several" people having the real info on Romney's taxes, and further count on one (or more) of them being a card carrying member of the 99% - or perhaps a disgruntled IRS or Price-Waterhous e employee.

The race ought to be on for the money! To sweetent it up, Is Larry Flynt (or some other patriot) offering an additional premium (and possible asylum) to bank employees who produce off-shore records? This would be a great project for Colbert Super-Pac!

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