BlackRock: the Shadow Bank of the Belt and Road
How they are using our pensions to fund Belt and Road critical infrastructure projects and Israeli cyber technology.
(Image from: BlackRock: The Secret Company that Owns the World | by Isaiah McCall | Yard Couch | Medium)
What do Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of New York Mellon, Goldman Sachs, Western Union, and Wells Fargo all have in common? They have all been accused of money laundering and all owned by BlackRock, Vanguard, and/or State Street. During my dig on the banks in the Pandora Papers, two names were noticeably absent: BlackRock and The Vanguard Group.
Vanguard Group is a private firm and its the funds they own that controls the group. You will notice the companies that own Vanguard are also owned by the Big Three or another firm they own. This is the circular ownership that allows the Big Three to hide their disproportionate power over the companies they own and the U.S. economy. There’s even a revolving door of BlackRock employees “Rockers” placed in the Biden Cabinet.
Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTI) Top 10 Holdings (23.08% of Total Assets)
Apple Inc 6.13% - Vanguard, BlackRock, Berkshire Hathaway, State Street
Microsoft Corp 5.31% - Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, FMR LLC
Amazon.com Inc 2.22% - Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, FMR LLC
NVIDIA Corp 1.60% - JP Morgan Chase & Company
Alphabet Inc Class A 1.53% - Vanguard, BlackRock, FMR LLC, State Street
Tesla Inc 1.38% - Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, Geode Capital Management,
Berkshire Hathaway Inc Class B 1.33% - Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, Geode Capital Management, LLC, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust
Alphabet Inc Class C 1.30% - Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, Price (T.Rowe)
Meta Platforms Inc Class A 1.17% - Vanguard, BlackRock, FMR LLC, State Street
Exxon Mobil Corp 1.10% - Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, FMR LLC
*Bill and Melinda Gates invested half their foundation’s money in Berkshire Hathaway which is also controlled by the Big Three.
“Asset management firms have become a part of a new ‘money trust’ — a system of financial architecture dominated by a few large banks, private equity firms, and hedge funds,” Graham Steele, director of the Corporations and Society Initiative at Stanford Graduate School of Business.1
According to the American Economic Liberties Project, the major institutional stockholdings of BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street give them “outsized influence” in corporate elections. This creates anti-competitive behavior among companies in a given sector. This monopoly is how BlackRock and Vanguard are forcing companies to implement racist and discriminatory Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity programs. You really think Bud Lite wanted to put a man in a dress on their beer?
“The sheer size and interconnectedness of the three firms influence the stability of the financial system, and they benefit by providing critical infrastructure, such as custody and technology platforms.”2
Even though they don’t own the underlying assets that they manage, they still control many activities, including voting shares. The Big Three manage over $15 trillion in global assets, which is equal to approximately three-quarters of the U.S. gross domestic product. Most of the banks accused of money laundering tend to have the Big Three as their institutional stockholders.
SEC.gov | BlackRock Charged With Removing Whistleblower Incentives in Separation Agreements Jan. 17, 2017
The Big Three and Israel
The Silicon Valley Bank that promoted BlackRock’s “woke capital” ESG programs and worked closely with politicians and tech oligarchs in both the U.S. and Israel. According to the Times of Israel, in the days immediately preceding the bank’s collapse, Israeli bankers, working on behalf of themselves and the nation’s own tech oligarchs, pulled $1 billion out of SVB.
SVB Financial Group (SIVBQ) % of Shares Held by Institutions - 106.15%
Vanguard…11.25%
BlackRock… 8.05%
State Street… 5.21%
JP Morgan Chase… 4.25% (Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, Morgan Stanley)
Morgan Stanley… 2.60% (State Street, Vanguard, BlackRock, JP Morgan Chase)
Signature Bank (SBNY) % of Shares Held by Institutions - 95.80%
Vanguard… 12.03%
BlackRock… 7.75%
State Street… 5.18%
Israeli Banks Transferred $1 Billion Out of SVB Before Collapse – NewsWars
Most of the deposits in SVB were Israeli tech startups and they were able to pull their money out before the bank collapsed. The Big Three sure do love to invest in Israeli tech companies…
BlackRock buys Hapoalim stake - Globes
The Times of Israel reported:
“Israel’s two largest banks, Bank Leumi and Bank Hapoalim, set up a situation room that has been operating around the clock to help firms transfer their money from SVB — before it was seized — to accounts in Israel. Over the past few days, teams at LeumiTech, the high-tech banking arm of Bank Leumi, have been able to help their Israeli clients transfer about $1 billion to Israel, the bank said.”3
Not only does Blackrock and Vanguard own banks but major technology companies like Microsoft, Apple, Intel, NVIDIA and many others.
Vanguard Funds to Hit Israeli Scene - Haaretz Com - Haaretz.com
iShares MSCI Israel ETF | EIS - iShares owned by BlackRock
BlackRock Opens Tel Aviv Office to Tap Israel's Technology Edge - Bloomberg
Verint Systems Inc. (VRNT) Vanguard, BlackRock
Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (CHKP) BlackRock, State Street
Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase
Intel Corporation (INTC) Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, Morgan Stanley, Bank of New York Mellon
Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street
NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) Vanguard, BlackRock, FMR, State Street
BlackRock is the shadow bank funding global infrastructure projects for the past 14 years. The Multipolar World Order wouldn’t be possible without BlackRock.
BlackRock Global Infrastructure Fund IV Raises US$4.5 Billion at First Close (yahoo.com) “The Fund, which invests in essential infrastructure assets globally, secured initial commitments from a diverse group of institutional investors, including public and private pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies and family offices. These clients are based around the world, including from the United States, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.”
BlackRock and Ukraine
Zelenskyy, BlackRock CEO Fink agree to coordinate Ukraine investment (cnbc.com)
Who better to coordinate Ukraine’s money laundering and fund the Kiev City State gulag than BlackRock CEO Larry Fink?
BlackRock in Mexico and China
BlackRock began operating in Mexico in 2008 under Felipe Calderon and benefited from its ties to Mexican officials and oligarchs. Marco Slim Domit is the son of Carlos Slim, Mexico's richest man, is a BlackRock board member. Mexico’s former undersecretary of finance, Gerardo Rodriguez Regordosa, became a managing director in 2013. The CEO of BlackRock Mexico, Isaac Volin, was previously a national bank regulator, and in 2016 he became the general director of a PEMEX subsidiary.
BlackRock’s relationship with the outgoing government of Enrique Peña Nieto bolstered their efforts to generate an infrastructure business in Mexico from scratch. Since 2012, BlackRock has purchased stakes in Mexican toll roads, hospitals, gas pipelines, prisons, oil exploration businesses, and a coal-fired power plant. The company benefited from the controversial opening of PEMEX, the state-run oil monopoly, to private investment. Within seven months, BlackRock had secured $1 billion in PEMEX energy projects.
BlackRock’s 2013 annual report featured a section called “The Infrastructure Opportunity,” explaining how its funds—pension funds—could fill the gap governments needed to upgrade their public works.
By placing hundreds of millions of dollars in pension money into its Mexican infrastructure business, BlackRock puts Mexico's state and local governments in an impossible position, says Josh Rosner, an adviser to the BlackRock Transparency Project. “If a BlackRock-owned infrastructure project becomes ‘a road to nowhere,' and the government wants to stop funding the project, BlackRock can put the official over a barrel and say, ‘You're putting a loss on pensioners,'” Rosner says. “This would force the public official to choose between a waste of public monies and the risk that they would suffer a political loss of voters.” Such an arrangement virtually guarantees conflicts of interest, and possible corruption, in these projects.4
It is alleged by the DEA that Carlos Slim is linked to the Mexican drug cartels. With all his connections to BlackRock and Larry Fink, then it is likely BlackRock is involved as well. In 2010, Slim bought a 2% stake in BlackRock.
DEA: 'Yes,' Mexican Billionaire Carlos Slim Is Linked to Drugs | Opinion | teleSUR English
How BlackRock Rules the World - The American Prospect
“We suspected a Chinese ideological and strategic motivation behind the drug and money activity,” said former senior FBI official Frank Montoya Jr., who served as a top counterintelligence official at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. “To fan the flames of hate and division. The Chinese have seen the advantages of the drug trade. If fentanyl helps them and hurts this country, why not?”5
Chinese money brokers based in Mexico “have come to dominate international money laundering markets,” U.S. prosecutors said in a Sept. 24 sentencing memorandum.6
BlackRock’s investments in China and Mexico are funding the fentanyl crisis and weapons trafficking in the United States. They also maybe more directly involved in the money laundering of the firms they own.
The Gangster Who Changed Money Laundering — ProPublica
Chinese American gangster Xizhi Li and his powerful international connections made his money laundering service cheap, fast and efficient; he even guaranteed replacement of cartel drug money lost in transit.
After the handoff, the couriers alerted their Chinese bosses in Mexico, who quickly sent pesos to the bank accounts or safe houses of Mexican cartel leaders. Li would then execute a chain of transactions through China, the United States and Latin America to launder the money.
“Li’s network used Chinese banks including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Agricultural Bank of China, court documents say. Those state institutions were among the banks that moved millions around the world with little apparent scrutiny in this case and others, according to court documents and interviews. Prosecutors did not accuse any bankers of wrongdoing. But investigators suspect that some bankers looked the other way. (The banks did not respond to requests for comment.)”
BlackRock and Vanguard via Goldman Sachs owns 51% in ICBC joint wealth management venture, and they are the first U.S. company to operate a wholly owned China mutual fund business.
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS)
How China’s biggest bank became ensnared in a money laundering probe (reuters.com)
BlackRock becomes first to operate wholly owned China mutual fund biz | Reuters
China approves Goldman Sachs, ICBC joint wealth management venture | Reuters
When the likes of George Soros is blowing the whistle on BlackRock investing in China, then you know it’s really bad.
“Rupert Darwall, a senior fellow at the RealClear Foundation, warns that Wall Street in general, and BlackRock specifically, are at risk of Chinese pressure influencing their investment decisions. Legendary investor George Soros (even if you vehemently disagree with his politics, he is an extremely gifted investor) called BlackRock’s investing billions in China a “tragic mistake” that will harm U.S. national security and investors. Soros is right.”7
To put it bluntly, Wall Street appears to have a conflict of interest. Here’s how the New York Times’ Li Yuan put it:
Even while Beijing tightens its grip over business and the economy, it is giving global investment firms greater opportunities to serve Chinese companies and investors.
At the height of a market sell-off in late July, the deputy chairman of China’s securities regulator, Fang Xinghai, summoned executives of BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and other firms to a meeting, trying to alleviate investor nervousness over Beijing’s crackdowns, according to a memo I reviewed.
Some 20 days later, regulators approved BlackRock’s application to offer mutual funds in China. Around the same time, a BlackRock executive told The Financial Times that China was underrepresented in global investors’ portfolios and in global benchmarks. The firm recommended that investors boost their allocations by two to three times.
How This Harms U.S. National Security
The BlackRock conflict-of-interest harms national security in two ways:
Aside from putting hard-earned American pension dollars at greater risk, sending money into China directly helps the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The CCP is short of dollars and needs more of them to sustain its system and keep monetary policy from becoming too tight.
This is a national security issue because if systemically important American firms with tremendous lobbying power are tied to China, we are prone to greater foreign influence on our politics and on our foreign policy.
The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 caused the crisis we are facing today. Banks were no longer prevented from operating as both commercial and investment banks, and the repeal allowed financial institutions to become "too big to fail." BlackRock and Vanguard must be broken up in order to save The Republic.
-D.C.
Additional Articles
Biden Ties to BlackRock Deepen With Latest Treasury Hire (BLK) - Bloomberg
Bank of America Corporation (BAC)
Berkshire Hathaway… 12.62% (BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust)
Vanguard… 7.59%
BlackRock… 5.90%
State Street… 3.72%
Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft (DB)
BlackRock… 5.38%**
** Holds 5.38% Deutsche Bank shares and additional 1.01% of the voting rights through other instruments, overall 6.39% of the voting rights.
Shareholder Structure – Deutsche Bank (db.com)
There’s an Oligopoly in Asset Management. This Researcher Says It Should Be Broken Up. | Institutional Investor By Julie Segal Nov. 24, 2020
“Asset management firms have become a part of a new ‘money trust’ — a system of financial architecture dominated by a few large banks, private equity firms, and hedge funds,” Graham Steele, director of the Corporations and Society Initiative at Stanford Graduate School of Business, wrote in a new report expected to be published Tuesday. The working paper is being published by the American Economic Liberties Project, a non-profit focused on antitrust policy.
According to the paper, the stock holdings of BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street give them “outsized influence” in corporate elections and reward anti-competitive behavior among companies in a given sector. The sheer size and interconnectedness of the three firms influence the stability of the financial system, and they benefit by providing critical infrastructure, such as custody and technology platforms.
Even though BlackRock and the other firms don’t own the underlying assets that they manage, they still control many activities, including voting shares, Steele said. According to the paper, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street manage over $15 trillion in global assets, which is equal to approximately three-quarters of the U.S. gross domestic product. The asset management industry has also grown more concentrated over the last decade, with these three firms attracting 82 percent of all investor money over the time period. BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard also control between 73 percent and 80 percent of the exchange-traded fund market, according to Steele.”
BlackRock and the $15 trillion fund industry should be broken up, antimonopoly group says | CNN Business By Matt Egan Nov. 24, 2020
“Combined, BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard are the largest owner in 88% of the S&P 500 companies, according to a paper published Tuesday by the American Economic Liberties Project, a group that launched in February taking aim at what it sees as excessive corporate power. For instance, the Big Three hold leading stakes in companies including Apple (AAPL), JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Pfizer (PFE).
Critics say BlackRock (BLK), Vanguard and State Street (STT)have become too powerful and that the Biden administration and Congress need to rein them in.
“The solution is to go straight at the concentration problem by limiting their market share,” Graham Steele, who wrote the American Economic Liberties Project paper, told CNN Business.
The paper calls for effectively breaking up the Big Three by revamping Dodd-Frank, the 2010 Wall Street reform law.”
How BlackRock Endangers U.S. Prosperity And National Security (thefederalist.com) BY: JOE POPULARIS Nov. 03, 2021
World Economic Forum Appoints New Members to Board of Trustees > Press releases | World Economic Forum (weforum.org) Aug. 22, 2019
“Geneva, Switzerland, 22 August 2019 – Laurence D. Fink, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BlackRock, and Feike Sybesma, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Managing Board for Royal DSM, will join the Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum.”
China approves Goldman Sachs, ICBC joint wealth management venture | Reuters May 25, 2021
“The unit of U.S. banking giant Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) will offer a 51% funding contribution ratio, while the wealth management unit of ICBC will offer 49%, the Chinese bank said in a exchange filing.”
Myanmar: Investors Should Act to Halt Funds to Junta | Human Rights Watch (hrw.org) Nov. 19, 2021
“In October, Human Rights Watch wrote to several dozen investment firms that own shares in companies that operate in joint partnership with entities under the control of the junta installed by Myanmar’s military, which seized control in a February coup, engaged in a brutal crackdown against protestors, and is implicated in multiple crimes against humanity, killings, torture, and war crimes. Joint projects involving natural gas generate over a billion dollars in foreign revenue for the junta annually, transmitted in US dollars to the junta’s bank accounts in foreign countries.”
“Human Rights Watch wrote to investment firms with major investments in at least one of the following companies: Total Energies, Chevron, PTT or its subsidiary PTTEP, and POSCO, which together are responsible for the bulk of Myanmar’s natural gas production and revenues.
Blackrock, State Street, and Vanguard own substantial stakes in all four companies, giving them especially potent leverage with company leadership. Human Rights Watch also wrote to JP Morgan Chase, Bank of New York Mellon, Fisher Asset Management, and Dimensional Fund Advisors, as well as to several other funds of varying sizes with significant shares in Total Energies. Human Rights Watch has previously corresponded with Total Energies and PTT about their Myanmar operations.”
BlackRock Global Infrastructure Fund IV Raises US$4.5 Billion at First Close (yahoo.com) Oct. 25, 2022
“The Fund, which invests in essential infrastructure assets globally, secured initial commitments from a diverse group of institutional investors, including public and private pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies and family offices. These clients are based around the world, including from the United States, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.”
BlackRock Opens Tel Aviv Office to Tap Israel's Technology Edge - Bloomberg By Yaacov Benmeleh July 5, 2017
BlackRock and Vanguard: The Same Shady People Own Big Pharma and the Media (noqreport.com) By Dr. Joseph Mercola Jun. 15, 2021
Colossal Financial Pyramid: BlackRock and The WEF "Great Reset" - Global ResearchGlobal Research - Centre for Research on Globalization By F. William Engdahl Jan. 31, 2023
U.S. Investments Firm BlackRock Buys 3% Stake in Israel’s Bank Hapoalim - Jewish Business News By Jewish Business May 2, 2021
Wells Fargo Banker Guilty of Helping Launder Cartel Drug Money (businessinsider.com) By David Choi May 17, 2019
Global banks defy U.S. crackdowns by serving oligarchs, criminals and terrorists - ICIJ By ICIJ Sep. 20, 2020
“The records show that five global banks — JPMorgan, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank and Bank of New York Mellon — kept profiting from powerful and dangerous players even after U.S. authorities fined these financial institutions for earlier failures to stem flows of dirty money.”
Banks Launder Billions of Illegal Cartel Money While Snubbing Legal Marijuana Businesses | HuffPost Impact By Avinash Tharoor Sep 22, 2014
“Bank of America, Western Union, and JP Morgan, are among the institutions allegedly involved in the drug trade. Meanwhile, HSBC has admitted its laundering role, and evaded criminal prosecution by paying a fine of almost $2 billion. The lack of imprisonment of any bankers involved is indicative of the hypocritical nature of the drug war; an individual selling a few grams of drugs can face decades in prison, while a group of people that tacitly allow -- and profit from -- the trade of tons, escape incarceration.”
BlackRock cuts stake in scandal-hit Danske Bank to below 5 percent | Reuters By Reuters Staff Jan. 30, 2019
“BlackRock has cut its holding in Danske Bank, which is embroiled in a major money laundering scandal, Denmark’s biggest bank said in a statement.”
Exposing BlackRock: Who’s Afraid of Laurence Fink and His Overpowering Institution? - Truthout By Andrew Gavin Marshall Dec. 23, 2015
“It manages more wealth than Japan and Germany have in GDP. In fact, only China and the United States have a larger GDP than BlackRock has assets under management. Yet when one includes assets that the company not only manages, but advises upon, the number soars to around $15 trillion, roughly equal to US GDP.
It’s safe to say that BlackRock is the single largest financial institution in the world: a vast holding company that has become a major shareholder in roughly 40% of all publicly traded companies in the US, the largest single shareholder in one out of every five US corporations, and one of the largest shareholders in companies around the world, from Canada to Brazil, Germany, Japan, China and beyond.
Specifically, BlackRock is one of the top shareholders in all major US banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo.
In terms of America’s most profitable and recognizable corporations, BlackRock is a top shareholder of Walmart, General Electric, General Motors, Ford, AT&T, Verizon, Google, Apple, Exxon Mobil and Chevron.
BlackRock’s other large holdings include Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, Amazon, Facebook, Berkshire Hathaway, Gilead Sciences, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Merck, Intel, Coca-Cola, Walt Disney Company, Home Depot, Philip Morris, VISA, McDonald’s, Cisco Systems, PepsiCo, IBM, Oracle, Comcast, Lockheed Martin, MasterCard, Starbucks, Boeing and ConocoPhillips, along with thousands of other, smaller brands.
But despite its size and influence, BlackRock remains virtually unregulated as an asset management firm. Unlike a bank, asset management firms do not manage and invest their own money, but do so on behalf of their many clients. In the case of BlackRock, those clients come in the form of banks, corporations, insurance companies, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, central banks and foundations. Gerald Davis, a professor of management and organization at the University of Michigan, described BlackRock as “the silent giant” that few know about, but which is “incredibly powerful.”
The company’s power is expressed not merely in terms of its equity (shareholdings) and bonds (debt ownership), but in its role as an adviser to governments and institutions.”
The Kids Are Alright. BlackRock’s President Isn’t. (jacobin.com) BY RYAN ZICKGRAF
“BlackRock did for investing what Henry Ford did for the car, says the Financial Times. Sure, but imagine if Ford built a car that drove off a cliff en masse. That’s a crude way to describe the way that the mortgage-backed security market bubble burst, helping trigger the credit crisis in 2007 and rocking the entire global financial system, leading to the Great Recession.”
The American Spectator: The Vatican’s ‘Council for Inclusive Capitalism’ Dec. 13, 2020
Council for Inclusive Capitalism | Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism
BRIAN MOYNIHAN Bank of America
RONALD O'HANLEY State Street
LYNN FORESTER DE ROTHSCHILD Inclusive Capital Partners
RAJIV SHAH The Rockefeller Foundation
DARREN WALKER Ford Foundation
CO-CHAIRS 3 of 6 companies Vanguard, BlackRock, State, or top mutual fund holder
STEERING COMMITTEE 12 of 32 Vanguard, BlackRock, State, or top mutual fund holder
Swedbank money laundering scandal draws in BlackRock, Vanguard (internationalinvestment.net) By Jonathan Boyd Feb. 27, 2019
SEC.gov | BlackRock Charged With Removing Whistleblower Incentives in Separation Agreements Jan. 17, 2017
“The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that New York-based asset manager BlackRock Inc. has agreed to pay a $340,000 penalty to settle charges that it improperly used separation agreements in which exiting employees were forced to waive their ability to obtain whistleblower awards.”
“BlackRock took direct aim at our whistleblower program by using separation agreements that removed the financial incentives for reporting problems to the SEC,” said Anthony S. Kelly, Co-Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Asset Management Unit. “Asset managers simply cannot place restrictions on the ability of whistleblowers to accept financial awards for providing valuable information to the SEC.”
BlackRock, the story of the world’s largest shadow bank… - The Strategy Story
'Mike Gill -Man On A Mission "Exposing The Entire Money Laundering System of The Deep State?" '
https://rumble.com/v2hf1yq-mike-gill-man-on-a-mission-exposing-the-entire-money-laundering-system-of-t.html