One must wonder what the famously private chairman of Fidelity thinks about the media storm around an ex-employee's donations to the Mitt Romney presidential campaign. It turns out that those reports were wrong and that former employee did not make the $400,000 donation. The money came from someone else, but the news cycle moves on.

Last week USA Today reported Seaspray Partners donated $400,000 to "Save Our Future", a superpac that supports the Romney campaign. The paper added that:

Seaspray Partners is an investment firm created by Scott DeSano, a former Fidelity investments executive who now owns an Atlanta pizzeria, according to Florida corporate records, Internet website registrations and DeSano's LinkedIn profile.

DeSano, fundsters may recall, was one of the Fidelity executives forced from the industry as part of the "green for greens" kickback scandal involving Fidelity executives, brokerage firms and not-so-proper payments.

That initial report led to follow-ons, such as the one from Bloomberg titled: "Romney Bid Backed by Disgraced Former Fidelity Trader."

Yet, the story was too good to be true.

DeSano denied he made the donation in an "on-the-record" statement to USA Today on Friday. Neither he nor the company donated even "a dime".

By Monday evening the Associated Press was reporting that the donation really came from "Gerald and Darlene Jordan" who are tied to Hellman Jordan Management. And the news cycle goes on. Just don't ask Ned about any of it at dinner tonight. 

Edited by: Sean Hanna, Editor in Chief


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