Massive investment management firm BlackRock has drawn significant criticism in recent years over the influence it appears to wield over the financial, corporate, and governmental realms.
The entity controls a significant portion of Target and has been linked to the retail chain’s decision to openly embrace a controversial LGBT marketing plan earlier this year.
In response to the firm’s perceived impact on decisions made by Target and other major companies, many critics cite a comment BlackRock CEO Larry Fink made in 2017 to bolster their assertions.
“You have to force behaviors and at BlackRock we are forcing behaviors,” Fink said. “What we’re doing internally is if you don’t achieve these levels of impact, your compensation could be impacted, OK? You have to force behaviors and if you don’t force behaviors, whether it’s gender or race or any way you want to say the composition of your team, you’re going to be impacted.”
Perhaps more troubling to many Americans is the power BlackRock seems to exert over elected officials, which is the subject of a recent investigative report by James O’Keefe.
The independent journalist, who founded Project Veritas and now operates the O’Keefe Media Group, sent an associated reporter to speak with BlackRock recruiter Serge Varlay as part of an undercover investigation.
As the resulting footage reveals, Varlay was candid about how the huge sum of money under BlackRock’s control allows it to effectively “run the world,” although he made it clear that the firm wishes to keep its activity under wraps.
“They don’t want to be in the news,” he said. “They don’t want people to talk about them. They don’t want to be anywhere on the radar.”
Asked why BlackRock sought such secrecy, Varlay said: “I don’t know, but I suspect it’s because it’s easier to do things when people aren’t thinking about it.”
The conversation touched on a range of other issues, including the assertion that the war in Ukraine is “good for business” and that a U.S. senator can be bought for as little as $10,000.
O’Keefe followed up the bombshell release by reporting that his company’s tip line had been bombarded with spam mail since the video was published.
After our @BlackRock video OMG is facing denial of service attacks where every second our email tip inboxes are filled with state and municipal government notifications. Sources can submit their tips and info on signal or through https://t.co/Ybmsk6JD6b https://t.co/gWT0FXKdFe
— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) June 21, 2023
He wrote that O’Keefe Media Group “is facing denial of service attacks where every second our email tip inboxes are filled with state and municipal government notifications.”
