Dems request SEC action to require disclosure of foreign ownership -- to protect elections.

[JudyM]

Last edited Fri Mar 25, 2022, 12:29 PM - Edit history (1)

“As you know, existing federal law allows the SEC to require regulated businesses to file a range of important information with the agency, including information regarding shareholders that own appreciable amounts of a regulated business’ stock (see 17 C.F.R. §§ 240.13d-1, 240.13d-101). Expanding these reporting obligations to require businesses to disclose appreciable foreign ownership or control would go a long way in helping to protect our democracy.”
https://raskin.house.gov/press-releases?id=D58D5A21-A1FD-45D1-A9B3-D26BFD8F34EC

Democrats seek SEC action on foreign influence in elections

“Foreign interests have spent many millions of dollars in recent U.S. elections, often through ‘dark money’ channels, and we witnessed unprecedented foreign efforts to undermine our democracy during the 2016 election cycle,” the letter stated. “Further, as Russia continues its illegal war on Ukraine and the U.S. and its allies impose sanctions on President [Vladimir] Putin and Russia’s complicit oligarchs, we cannot forget that those same oligarchs likely have millions stowed away in U.S. corporations.”
Jamie Raskin and 15 other Dems sent a letter to the SEC yesterday…

“Current law bars individual foreign nationals from personally contributing to federal campaigns,” the lawmakers note in their letter, “yet foreign political spending can still take place via U.S.-registered corporations that are foreign subsidiaries or appreciably foreign-owned or foreign-controlled, all thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling.”

Raskin and his colleagues argue that the Citizens United decision, which paved the way for corporations to be able to give unlimited amounts from their treasuries to super PACs, “created a massive foreign money loophole in our country’s campaign finance system. The problem is that domestically registered corporations can be taken over, appreciably bought-up, controlled, or influenced by foreign governments, foreign corporations, or foreign nationals,” the letter said.
…
The lawmakers sending the letter Thursday also called on the SEC to formalize “a close working relationship on this policy with the Federal Election Commission, the Department of Justice, the Department of the Treasury, and any other relevant governmental entity — with the goal of ascertaining which regulated businesses are appreciably foreign-owned or foreign-controlled and are spending business funds for election-related purposes,” the letter said.

https://rollcall.com/2022/03/24/democrats-seek-sec-action-on-foreign-influence-in-elections/

Text of the letter and list of signatories is at the Raskin webpage. Hoping this will get more press coverage.

[2naSalit]

1. K&R

[Ford_Prefect]

2. The question is will the SEC act on this request and do so with dispatch?

[JudyM]

3. It would need to go through all the levels of crafting, vetting and rulemaking/public comment

so hopefully with as much dispatch as they can fire up!