Shareholder Organizations Respond to Recent, Corporate-Friendly US Supreme Court Decision

Submitted by andrewr on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 10:44am
in
Date: 
Thursday, February 4, 2010 - 11:00am
Location : 
DC

CITIZENS UNITED/CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS: MAJOR JOINT PUSH EMERGING TO PROTECT INTERESTS OF INVESTOR OWNERS OF COMPANIES

Three-Pronged Response Envisioned by Diverse Group of Shareholder-Related Organizations

WASHINGTON, D.C. A large and growing group of shareholder organizations will announce at 11:00 a.m. EST Thursday (February 4, 2010) that they will work together to pursue a far-reaching, three-part response to the U.S. Supreme Court Citizens United decision providing much greater latitude to corporations making campaign contributions.

The efforts will focus on a combination of proxy resolutions by the shareholder advocates, rulemaking by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and legislation by Congress.

News event speakers will be:

* Bruce Freed, president, Center for Political Accountability;

* Robert A.G. Monks, shareholder advocate, attorney and founder of Lens Governance Advisors;

* New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, who is a trustee of the New York City Employees' Retirement System, the largest pension fund in New York City.

* Maureen Thompson, acting executive director, ShareOwners.org.

A list of the major groups involved in the new multi-group effort organized by ShareOwners.org will be provided during the news event.

TO PARTICIPATE: You can join this live, phone-based news conference (with full, two-way Q&A) at 1:30 p.m. EST on Thursday, February 4, 2010 by dialing 1 (800) 860-2442. Ask for the "Citizens United coalition response" news event.

CAN'T PARTICIPATE?: A streaming audio replay of the news event will be available on the Web at http://www.shareowners.org as of 6 p.m. EST on February 4, 2010.

CONTACT: Patrick Mitchell, (703) 276-3266 or pmitchell@hastingsgroup.com.

Launched in June 2009, ShareOwners.org (http://www.ShareOwners.org) is a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization that will educate and organize U.S. investors to support both short- and long-term financial market reforms. ShareOwners.org's broad four-part agenda focuses on the need for stronger regulation (including a beefed-up SEC), increased accountability of boards/CEOs, improved financial transparency and protection of the legal rights of investors.