The bank's management is now under heavy scrutiny as enforcement agencies investigate what went awry causing the 16th-largest bank in the country to be sent into a tailspin.
A customer stands outside of a shuttered Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) headquarters on March 10, 2023 in Santa Clara, California. Silicon Valley Bank was shut down on Friday morning by California regulators and was put in control of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
On Tuesday, the New York Post reported that among the 12 members of SVB’s board of directors who were supposed to guide the bank away from catastrophic errors include a Hillary Clinton mega-donor who went to a Shinto shrine to pray after Donald Trump won the White House, a former President Barack Obama political appointee, and a prolific contributor to Democrats who owns a Napa Valley vineyard just 15 minutes from the former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
According to the report, Democratic alignment was part of the bank's overall strategy.
SENATE GOP GETS ITS OWN SILICON VALLEY BANK BRIEFING AFTER COMPLAINING ABOUT TREASURY 'EXCLUSION'
An FDIC sign is posted on a window at a Silicon Valley Bank branch in Wellesley, Mass., on Saturday, March 11, 2023. From winemakers in California to startups across the Atlantic Ocean, companies are scrambling to figure out how to manage their finances after their bank, Silicon Valley Bank, suddenly shut down on Friday. U.S. customers with less than $250,000 in the bank can count on insurance provided by the FDIC. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)
The board members donated to Obama, Clinton and President Biden, and to local Democratic congressional reps including Pelosi — as well as political action committees for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), a longtime member of the powerful Senate Banking Committee, according to the Post.
"Everyone knew it was the go-to bank for woke CEOs," one source told the New York Post. "They knew they were aligned politically. The companies SVB loaned money to all had a woke agenda."
President Biden Speaks At The House Democratic Caucus Issues Conference In Baltimore. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The report alleges that most of the SVB board lacked actual banking expertise, except for the Tom King – a factor likely to be part of the Justice Department's probe into the bank's collapse.