Building Solamere

While Solamere has not operated exactly as a subsidiary of the Romney campaign, it has seemed that way at times. The firm shared its first address with the Romney campaign headquarters in Boston. Later, the company was located in the same building as Mr. Romney’s leadership PAC, Free and Strong America, before moving to trendy Newbury Street in Boston.

When Mr. Zwick was leading Solamere’s fund-raising in 2008 and 2009, he was also raising money for the leadership PAC, which paid his finance consulting firm, SJZ, LLC, more than $425,000 during those years.

Solamere began sending offering memorandums to prospective investors in May 2008, around the time the leadership PAC began collecting checks, raising the possibility that Mr. Zwick was soliciting some people for both ventures.

Mr. Zwick insisted there was no conflict, explaining that the work he did for the political committee was relatively low-key. He said the payments to his firm went to other contractors, and that he was a volunteer.

Mr. Zwick was not the only one from the Romney finance shop who decamped to Solamere. One of the firm’s early employees, Mason J. Fink, was Mr. Zwick’s deputy during the 2008 campaign and had previously worked as a private equity analyst. Mr. Fink left Solamere in 2010 and runs day-to-day fund-raising for the Romney 2012 campaign, reporting to Mr. Zwick, who splits his time between Solamere and the campaign.

Laura Coleman, the director of donor relations for the Romney 2008 campaign, also joined Solamere for several months in 2008, according to her résumé on LinkedIn. Simultaneously, she worked for Mr. Zwick’s consulting firm, where he said she was an administrative assistant.

Kaitlin O’Reilly is another employee who pulled double duty. At Solamere, she researched potential investors, helped coordinate the investor conference, and lined up a $1 million investor, according to LinkedIn. At Mr. Zwick’s consulting firm, she tracked donors and helped coordinate finance events for Free and Strong America. She later became a finance coordinator for the Romney 2012 campaign.