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One-time Jeff Greene associate one of Romney’s big-money backers

Posted Aug 1, 2011 by William March

Updated Aug 1, 2011 at 12:44 PM

The Wall Street Journal posted a blog item today about a small group of major donors putting big money—in some cases $1 million or more each—into an independent political committee backing Mitt Romney for president.

One of the million-dollar donors, New York hedge fund manager John Paulson, might be familiar to Florida political junkies, particularly those who followed the self-funded Senate campaign of real estate billionaire Jeff Greene last year.

According to a widely reported story told by Greene, Paulson is the man who gave Greene the idea to sell sub-prime mortgage bonds short, thereby making Greene a billionaire when those bonds defaulted in the 2007 real estate meltdown. Paulson also made megabucks shorting sub-prime mortgages.

Reportedly, the two ceased to be friends because Greene made the trade on his own rather than going through Johnson’s fund.

According to the Journal blog, the pro-Romney group just reported having raised $12.2 million, nearly all in very large donations.

Two contributions of $1 million each came from companies associated with an executive and former CEO of Nu Skin Enterprises, a Utah-based, Amway-style, multi-level marketing company selling skin products. Texas homebuilder Bob Perry gave $500,000.