A growing coalition of state governments is pushing back against the world’s largest asset manager, saying it is putting its political agenda over the interests of clients and even U.S. national security.
Last week, a group of 19 state attorneys general from Republican-leaning states sent a strongly worded letter to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink demanding an end to this agenda and a return to fulfilling its fiduciary duties, suggesting the company’s actions may even be illegal.
Investigations and further legislative action may be next, state officials involved told The Epoch Times.
“Our state is heavily invested in organizations like BlackRock, and those organizations owe a fiduciary duty to the state of Montana to invest our money in the best way possible to earn returns,” Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said in a phone interview. “That doesn’t include pushing a liberal agenda.”
Saying that the company and its allies had failed to convince legislatures to back its ideas, Knudsen blasted what he argued was the company’s effort to impose “idealistic, green, utopian, progressive ideas” on Americans through economic pressure instead.
“I think companies like this are really teetering on the edge of being in violation of their fiduciary obligations,” added Knudsen, saying investigations and action by the legislature would be the next steps.
Indeed, numerous state laws require that fiduciaries such as BlackRock operate “solely” in the interests of their beneficiaries, for the “exclusive purposes” of benefiting those beneficiaries, the officials noted. In other words, their only job is to make money—not promote alternative agendas.
But instead of focusing simply on the risk and return of investments, as required, the letter accuses BlackRock of engaging in “activism” and even sacrificing the best interests of clients, taxpayers, and pensioners by focusing on its “climate agenda” and other political goals.
“Whether mixed motives arise from a desire to save the world or attract investment from European or left-leaning pension funds, is ultimately irrelevant to the legal violation,” said the state attorneys general from Arizona, Nebraska, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
By Alex Newman
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