Gawker has obtained a large cache of confidential internal financial documents from more than 20 secretive hedge funds and other investment vehicles in which Mitt Romney has stashed his considerable wealth. All told, the partnerships and limited liability corporations detailed below accounted for, at minimum, $10,069,000 of Romney's assets in 2011 and yielded $913,300 in income, according to his 2012 financial disclosure (those figures are derived from adding up the low end of ranges Romney disclosed; the actual numbers could be astronomically higher). 
 
 Most of the entities are affiliated in one way or another with Bain Capital, the private equity firm Romney ran from 1984 through 1999. According to his financial disclosures, the investments "were made pursuant to an agreement with Bain Capital regarding Romney's retirement.... The agreement has expired but [Romney] retain[s] certain investments...made prior to the expiration of the agreement." In other words, they are his retirement package from more than a decade ago, and continue to make him nearly a million (at minimum) dollars per year. 
 
 For a look at what we've been able to glean thus far from the documents—including Romney's unlikely relationship with the National Enquirer and how his money managers praised the economic stimulus he publicly derided—go here. But by all means peruse the documents yourself and lend your expertise to what they mean in the discussion. 
 
 All of the documents linked below are also available in a searchable format here, via Document Cloud. 
 
 The Bain Companies 
 
 All the entities below are affiliated in some way with Bain Capital, and are described in Romney's disclosures as leftovers from his 1999 retirement package. 
 
 
 
 Absolute Capital Return Partners LP 
 
 A U.S. private equity fund with $929 million in capital as of 2009. Romney held at least $1.25 million in it as of 2011, according to disclosures. Click here to read its 2009 audited financial statements. 
 
 
 
 Bain Capital Asia Fund LP 
 
 A $487 million Cayman Islands fund investing primarily in China and Japan. Romney held at least $100,000 in it as of 2011. Click here to read its 2009 audited financial statement. 
 
 
 
 Bain Capital Europe Fund III LP 
 
 A $287 million fund (denominated in Euros) investing primarily in Europe. Romney held at least $50,000 in it as of 2011. Click here to read its 2009 audited financial statements and September 30, 2010 unaudited financial statements. 
 
 
 
 Bain Capital Fund VI LP 
 
 A $73.4 million Cayman Islands fund investing in Domino's Pizza, Australian electronics manufacturer Startronics, venture capital firm Village Ventures, and others. Romney owned at least $50,000 of the fund in 2011, and reported owning 4.059% of its general partner in 2002. Click here for its 2009 audited financial statements and unaudited September 20, 2010 financial statements, as well as statements for an affiliated coinvestment fund. 
 
 
 
 Bain Capital Fund VII LP 
 
 A $516 million Cayman Islands fund investing in Burger King, AMC Entertainment, Bombardier Recreational Products, and other companies. Romney owned more than $1 million in it, as well as an affiliated coinvestment fund, as of 2011, and reported owning 4.059% of the fund's general partner in 2002. Click here for its 2009 audited financial statements, as well as statements for an affiliated coinvestment fund. 
 
 
 
 Bain Capital Fund VIII LP 
 
 A $3.7 billion Cayman Islands Fund investing in the parent company of Dunkin' Donuts, Burlington Coat Factory, Canadian dollar-store chain Dollarama, and other companies. (Bloomberg News has previously reported on some of Bain Capital Fund VIII LP's internal financials.) As of 2011, Romney held more than $1 million in the fund. Click here for its 2009 audited financial statements and September 30, 2010, unaudited financial statements, as well as statements for an affiliated coinvestment fund. 
 
 
 
 Bain Capital Fund VIII-E LP 
 
 A $971 million (denominated in Euros) Cayman Islands fund investing in companies in Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. In 2011, Romney held at least $250,000. Click here to read its 2009 audited financial statements. 
 
 
 
 Bain Capital Fund IX LP 
 
 A $4.5 billion Cayman Islands fund investing in Guitar Center, Chinese advertising firm SinoMedia, European restaurant supplier Brake Brothers, and other companies. In 2011, Romney held more than $500,000. Click here to read its 2009 audited financials, as well as statements for an affiliated coinvestment fund. 
 
 
 
 Bain Capital Fund X LP 
 
 A $2 billion Cayman Islands fund investing in the Weather Channel, corporate daycare chain Bright Horizons, and Chinese electronics retailer GOME. In 2011, Romney held at least $500,000. Click here for its 2009 audited financials, as well as those of an affiliated coinvestment fund. 
 
 
 
 Prospect Harbor Credit Partners LP 
 
 A $2.8 billion Delaware-based fund investing in a wide variety of American, Dutch, English, and German firms. In 2011, Romney held at least $1.25 million. Click here for its 2009 audited financials, as well as a November 2010 investor letter. 
 
 
 
 Sankaty Credit Opportunities LP 
 
 A $266 million Delaware-based fund investing primarily in debt issued by American companies. In 2011, Romney held more than $50,000. Click here for its audited 2009 and 2008 financials. 
 
 
 
 Sankaty Credit Opportunities I LP 
 
 A $174 million fund investing in corporate debt. In 2011, Romney held at least $1,000. Click here for its March 16 and December 2010 investor letters. 
 
 
 
 Sankaty Credit Opportunities II LP 
 
 A $960 million fund investing in corporate debt. In 2011, Romney held at least $250,000. Click here for its March 16 and December 2, 2010, investor letters. 
 
 
 
 Sankaty Credit Opportunities III LP 
 
 A $1.6 billion fund investing in corporate debt. In 2011, Romney held at least $1 million. Click here for its March 16 and December 2, 2010, investor letters. 
 
 
 
 Sankaty Credit Opportunities IV LP 
 
 A $1.4 billion Delaware fund investing primarily in debt issued by American companies. In 2011, Romney held at least $1 million. Click here for its 2009 audited financial statements and December 2, 2010 investor letter. 
 
 
 
 Sankaty Credit Opportunities (Offshore) IV LP 
 
 A $1.3 billion based in the Cayman Islands investing primarily in North American and European corporate debt. The Ann D. Romney Blind Trust reported income from the fund's general partner on its 2010 federal income tax return. Click here for its unaudited June 30, 2010 financial statements, as well as those of an affiliated "master fund." 
 
 
 
 Sankaty High Yield Partners II LP 
 
 A Delaware-based fund in liquidation, with -$565,415 in net assets, as of 2009. In 2010, Romney held between $1,000 and $15,000. Click here to see its 2008 and 2009 audited financials. 
 
 
 
 Sankaty High Yield Partners III LP 
 
 A Delaware-based fund in liquidation, with $713,141 in net assets as of 2009. In 2010, Romney held more than $15,000. Click here for its 2009 and 2008 audited financials. 
 
 
 
 Sankaty Advisors LLC Presentation 
 
 A 2010 Powerpoint presentation from Sankaty Advisors LLC, the credit affiliate of Bain Capital. 
 
 
 
 
 
 The Hedge Funds 
 
 The following hedge funds are listed in the 2010 tax returns for both the Ann D. Romney Blind Trust and the Ann and Mitt Romney 1995 Family Trust as holdings of Goldman Sachs Hedge Fund Partners LLC, a "fund of funds" in which the Romneys have invested at least $2 million. 
 
 
 
 Karsch Capital II LP 
 
 A $234 million Delaware-based hedge fund. Click here for its 2011, 2010, and 2005 audited financial statements, and a 2007 confidential offering memorandum describing its holdings and operations, as well as a 2006 audited financial statement and 2007 confidential explanatory memorandum for Karsch Capital Ltd., an affiliated Cayman Islands hedge fund. 
 
 
 
 Taconic Capital Partners 1.5 LP 
 
 A $790 million Delaware-based hedge fund. Click here for its 2011 consolidated financial statements, as well as those of two affiliated funds. 
 
 
 
 Viking Global Equities LP 
 
 A $6.8 billion Delaware-based hedge fund. Click here for its 2010 audited financial statements, as well as a 2011 confidential memorandum describing its operations and holdings. 
 
 If you have any thoughts on, or information about, these documents, please enter the discussion here. ||||| Mitt Romney's $250 million fortune is largely a black hole: Aside from the meager and vague disclosures he has filed under federal and Massachusetts laws, and the two years of partial tax returns (one filed and another provisional) he has released, there is almost no data on precisely what his vast holdings consist of, or what vehicles he has used to escape taxes on his income. Gawker has obtained a massive cache of confidential financial documents that shed a great deal of light on those finances, and on the tax-dodging tricks available to the hyper-rich that he has used to keep his effective tax rate at roughly 13% over the last decade. 
 
 Today, we are publishing more than 950 pages of internal audits, financial statements, and private investor letters for 21 cryptically named entities in which Romney had invested—at minimum—more than $10 million as of 2011 (that number is based on the low end of ranges he has disclosed—the true number is almost certainly significantly higher). Almost all of them are affiliated with Bain Capital, the secretive private equity firm Romney co-founded in 1984 and ran until his departure in 1999 (or 2002, depending on whom you ask). Many of them are offshore funds based in the Cayman Islands. Together, they reveal the mind-numbing, maze-like, and deeply opaque complexity with which Romney has handled his wealth, the exotic tax-avoidance schemes available only to the preposterously wealthy that benefit him, the unlikely (for a right-wing religious Mormon) places that his money has ended up, and the deeply hypocritical distance between his own criticisms of Obama's fiscal approach and his money managers' embrace of those same policies. They also show that some of the investments that Romney has always described as part of his retirement package at Bain weren't made until years after he left the company. 
 
 Bain isn't a company so much as an intricate suite of steadily proliferating inter-related holding companies and limited partnerships, some based in Delaware and others in the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, and elsewhere, designed to collectively house roughly $66 billion in wealth in its many crevices and chambers. When Romney left in 1999, he and his wife retained significant investments in many of those Bain vehicles—he claims they are "passive investments" and that they are managed in a blind trust (though the trustee isn't blind enough to meet federal standards of independence). But aside from disparate snippets of information contained in his federal and Massachusetts financial disclosure forms, his 2010 tax returns, and SEC filings, the nature of those investments has been obfuscated by design. 
 
 When he disclosed his finances to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics in 2007, Romney took care to publish the underlying holdings of many funds he invested with—after disclosing his $1 million-plus stake in "GS 2002 Exchange Place Fund LP," for instance, he listed six pages of individual equities the fund held, from Panera Bread Co. to Tribune Co. But when it came to the Bain investments, he simply listed the value of his investments in odd-sounding entities like "Sankaty High Yield Partners II LP" with no indication of what was inside. In an accompanying note, he claimed that he had tried and failed to get the information: "The filer has requested information about the underlying holdings of these funds and values and income amounts for these underlying holdings. However, the fund managers have informed the filer in writing that this information is confidential and proprietary, and has declined to provide such information." 
 
 That information—for Sankaty and 20 other funds—is now available here, in the form of 48 documents totaling more than 950 pages. They consist predominantly of confidential internal audited financial statements from 2008, 2009, and 2010, as well as investor letters from the same period, for Bain entities that Romney has previously disclosed owning an interest it. Owing to the timeframe—during and after the catastrophic economic meltdown of 2008—some of the investments show substantial losses. One limited partnership had even entered into liquidation as of October 2008 after failing to meet certain payments owed to partners. Others show astronomical gains. 
 
 The documents are exceedingly complicated. We don't pretend to be qualified to decode them in full, which is why we are posting them here for readers to help evaluate—please leave your thoughts in the discussion below. We asked an attorney who specializes in complex offshore corporate transactions, including ones involving Cayman Island entities, to review them and help us understand them. (We also asked the Romney campaign. It hasn't responded yet.) The full set can be read here. 
 
 Here's what we've found so far: 
 
 [Image by Jim Cooke; photo via Getty]
– Gawker is slowly assembling an investigative report on Bain Capital, and it wants your help (though it might help if you're a tax attorney or an accountant). The site has acquired a trove of internal files that "reveal the mind-numbing, maze-like, and deeply opaque complexity" of Mitt Romney's former company, writes John Cook. And "we don't pretend to be qualified to decode them in full." So they're posted here—all 950 pages of audits, financial statements, etc. We're already confused: Entities mentioned include "Sankaty High Yield Partners II LP" and "GS 2002 Exchange Place Fund LP."