

Newt Gingrich has ramped up his attacks on Mitt Romney as a heartless leveraged buyout executive for his years at Bain Capital, asking reporters in Manchester on Monday, “Is capitalism really about the ability of a handful of rich people to manipulate the lives of thousands of other people and walk off with the money? Or is that, somehow, a little bit of a flawed system?”

But Mr. Gingrich was himself on an advisory board for a major investment firm that had a similar business model, Forstmann Little, a pioneering private equity firm co-founded in 1978 by Theodore J. Forstmann that was, along with Mr. Romney’s Bain Capital and Henry R. Kravis’s Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts, among the leading private equity firms during the 1980s and 1990s.

Forstmann Little earned billions of dollars in profits from its investments in companies including General Instrument and Gulfstream Aerospace. But the firm shut down most of its operations a decade ago after suffering losses from ill-timed bets on high-flying telecommunications companies at the height of that industry’s bubble.

Mr. Gingrich’s involvement with the firm could complicate his attacks on Mr. Romney.

Still, to be fair, Mr. Forstman bristled at some of the more aggressive tactics of his rivals, and once described them as “barbarians at the gate.” That phrase was used as the title of a bestselling book that detailed Mr. Forstmann’s buyout battle with Mr. Kravis for RJR Nabisco, a contest K.K.R. eventually won.

An influential donor to Republican candidates, Mr. Forstmann fostered close relationships with Washington lawmakers and senior White House officials throughout his career. Donald H. Rumsfeld, the former secretary of Defense, served as chief executive of General Instrument under Forstmann Little’s ownership. In addition to Mr. Gingrich, Henry A. Kissinger and Robert J. Dole also served on the firm’s advisory board.

Mr. Forstmann died of brain cancer last November at the age of 71.

Mr. Gingrich would attend twice-a-year Forstmann Little advisory board meetings in Manhattan, which were held typically at the Four Seasons restaurant or at the ’21’ Club. The partners discussed potential investment with Mr. Gingrich, particularly those in the health care industry.

Over time, Mr. Gingrich made investments in Forstmann Little portfolio companies.

R.C. Hammond, a spokesman for Mr. Gingrich, said: “Several notable policy leaders including Henry Kissinger, Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole served on an advisory board for Forstmann Little. Gingrich served from ’99 to ’01 and was paid. Members of the panel met semiannually to provide counsel and advice.”

Fortune had also reported Mr. Gingrich’s ties to Forstmann earlier on Monday.