{"id":1419012,"date":"2022-04-05T05:15:11","date_gmt":"2022-04-05T09:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1419012"},"modified":"2022-04-05T05:15:16","modified_gmt":"2022-04-05T09:15:16","slug":"missouri-dem-invested-big-in-russian-state-owned-companies-through-family-tied-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/missouri-dem-invested-big-in-russian-state-owned-companies-through-family-tied-fund\/","title":{"rendered":"Missouri Dem Invested Big in Russian State-Owned Companies Through Family-Tied Fund"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmissouri-dem-invested-big-in-russian-state-owned-companies-through-family-tied-fund%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1419012&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"article-category\"><a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/\">Democrats<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"article-excerpt\">Ben Samuels&#8217;s financial portfolio could hinder bid to unseat Republican Rep. Ann Wagner<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-thumbnail-container relative lg:mr-24 w-full my-4 mb-8\"><figcaption class=\"absolute text-white p-4 w-full text-right text-xs bottom-0 bg-black opacity-75\">\n\t\t\t\tFacebook\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\t\t\t<span class=\"text-gray text-xs md:text-lg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/author\/collin-anderson\/\" title=\"Posts by Collin Anderson\" class=\"author url fn text-red-700\" rel=\"author\">Collin Anderson<\/a> \u2022 April 5, 2022 5:00 am<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>A Democrat running for Congress in Missouri has up to $1.25 million invested in a fund that poured hundreds of millions of dollars into state-owned Russian companies, including oil and gas giant Gazprom.<\/p>\n<p>Democratic congressional hopeful Ben Samuels has between $600,000 and $1.25 million invested in Capital Group&#8217;s EuroPacific Growth Fund, his <a href=\"https:\/\/disclosures-clerk.house.gov\/public_disc\/financial-pdfs\/2021\/10042154.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">candidate financial disclosure<\/a> shows. The fund has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/markets\/europe\/funds-that-have-large-russia-exposure-2022-03-02\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">driven nearly $1.7 billion<\/a> into Russian companies, many of which are state-owned.<\/p>\n<p>As of Dec. 31, for example, the fund <a href=\"https:\/\/www.capitalgroup.com\/individual\/investments\/quarterlyholdings\/feupx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">held<\/a> a $583 million stake in state-owned Russian bank Sberbank and a $358 million stake in state-owned Russian energy behemoth Gazprom. Capital Group has also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-02-25\/blackrock-among-russia-bond-holders-tangled-in-15-billion-rout\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">purchased<\/a> hundreds of millions of dollars&#8217; worth of Russian bonds, <em>Bloomberg<\/em> reported in February.<\/p>\n<p>Samuels&#8217;s financial holdings could prove to be a political liability in the Democrat&#8217;s bid to unseat Missouri Republican congresswoman Ann Wagner. The Treasury Department <a href=\"https:\/\/home.treasury.gov\/news\/press-releases\/jy0608#:~:text=To%20implement%20sanctions%20on%20Sberbank,%2Drelated%20CAPTA%20Directive%E2%80%9D).\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">leveled sanctions<\/a> on both Sberbank and Gazprom following Russia&#8217;s invasion of Ukraine in late February, a decision that aimed to &#8220;imperil Russia&#8217;s ability to raise capital key to its acts of aggression.&#8221; Prior to Russia&#8217;s invasion, Samuels made up to $65,000 in capital gains through his EuroPacific Growth Fund holding, according to his financial disclosure, which covers all of 2020 and most of 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Samuels, who did not respond to a request for comment, has ties to Capital Group that go beyond his investments. The Democrat&#8217;s father, Ted Samuels, served as a global equity portfolio manager at the Los Angeles-based investment firm from 1990 to 2016, his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bms.com\/about-us\/leadership\/board-of-directors.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bio<\/a> states. Samuels has used the relationship to generate cash for his campaign. Capital Group employees have given the Democrat <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/races\/contributors?cycle=2022&#038;id=MO02&#038;spec=N\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">more than $240,000<\/a>, according to OpenSecrets. Samuels&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/samuelsforcongress.com\/about\/\">campaign site<\/a> touts his great-great grandfather&#8217;s status as a small business owner but does not mention his father&#8217;s role as a top investment firm executive.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to Capital Group&#8217;s Russian holdings through its EuroPacific Growth Fund, the firm <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/markets\/europe\/funds-that-have-large-russia-exposure-2022-03-02\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">invested another $1.95 billion<\/a> in Russian companies through its Capital World Growth and Income Fund. In total, Capital Group had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/markets\/europe\/us-investment-manager-capital-group-was-among-top-exposed-russia-data-2022-03-02\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$4.55 billion in exposure<\/a> to Gazprom, Sberbank, and state-owned Russian mining company Alrosa as of Dec. 31, according to Reuters. Samuels holds roughly $8 million in investments through Capital Group, his financial disclosure shows. The holdings are split between a personal investment account and family trust.<\/p>\n<p>Gazprom replaced the Soviet Ministry of Gas Industry in 1989, becoming the Soviet Union&#8217;s first state-run corporation in the process. Sberbank replaced Soviet Russia&#8217;s savings bank in 1991, when it was founded as Sberbank of Russia, a name it operated under until 2015. Both companies are majority-owned by the Russian government.<\/p>\n<p>Born in Connecticut, Samuels spent much of his childhood in California. Prior to his run against Wagner, Samuels worked in the Chicago mayor&#8217;s office and served as an adviser to Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker (R.).<\/p>\n<p>Samuels is not the only Democrat running to unseat Wagner\u2014before facing the Republican in November, he will have to defeat primary opponent and state legislator Trish Gunby. Samuels has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fec.gov\/data\/elections\/house\/MO\/02\/2022\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">raised<\/a> $871,000 to Gunby&#8217;s $228,000. Wagner, meanwhile, has raised $2.5 million and has $1.5 million on hand.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democrats Ben Samuels&#8217;s financial portfolio could hinder bid to unseat Republican Rep. Ann Wagner  Facebook  Collin Anderson \u2022 April 5, 2022 5:00 am A<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1419012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1419012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1419012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1419012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1419012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1419012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1419012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}