The House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed the heads of BlackRock and State Street for a trove of documents and communications related to ESG initiatives.
The subpoenas, reviewed by the Washington Examiner, were filed on Friday. They request information from BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and State Street CEO Yie-Hsin Hung about environmental, social, and governance investment decisions, which are collectively known as ESG.
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For example, the panel is seeking all records and communications about decarbonization and BlackRock’s net zero goals from January 2019 to present. It is also seeking info about the companies’ commitments and targets that were developed by outside activist groups, including Climate Action 100+ and the Net Zero Asset Managers.
The subpoenas are part of a broader investigation into whether such ESG agreements and targets were collusive and in violation of antitrust laws. Earlier this week, the panel subpoenaed Vanguard and Arjuna Capital for similar documents and correspondence.
Additionally, the committee is in the final stages of issuing subpoenas to Glass Lewis and Institutional Investor Services, a person familiar with the matter said.
The Washington Examiner reached out to BlackRock and State Street for comment.
The inquiry and rash of subpoenas is the latest salvo in a Republican war against BlackRock and other large finance giants who they accuse of using ESG to play politics with investors’ money.
Several states have divested from BlackRock over the past couple of years in light of Fink’s embrace of ESG and stakeholder capitalism. Fink in particular has become a sort of punching back for some on the Right over the issue of “wokeness” in the corporate world.
The pushback might be showing signs of making headway. In August, an annual report revealed that BlackRock supported just 7% of nearly 400 shareholder proposals on environmental and social matters.
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That marks a notable decline from previous years. BlackRock supported nearly a quarter of such proposals in the previous cycle and 47% of environmental and social proposals in the cycle before that.
In BlackRock’s report, it appeared to highlight the importance the firm places on maximizing shareholder value. BlackRock has been criticized in the past for its embrace of ESG, something critics contend has made the money manager move away from its fiduciary duty.