Posted on 05/14/2008 1:55:34 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Cindy McCain, whose husband has been a critic of the violence in Sudan, sold off more than $2 million in mutual funds whose holdings include companies that do business in the African nation.
The sale on Wednesday came after The Associated Press questioned the investments in light of calls by John McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, for international financial sanctions against the Sudanese leadership.
Last year, at least four presidential candidates divested themselves of Sudan-related holdings.
According to McCain's personal financial disclosure, Cindy McCain's investments include two mutual funds — American Funds Europacific Growth fund and American Funds Capital World Growth and Income fund — that are listed by the Sudan Divestment Task Force as targets for divestment.
"Those have been sold as of today," said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers.
Both funds have holdings in Oil & Natural Gas Corp., an India-based company that does business in Sudan. The American Funds Capital World Growth & Income Fund also has holdings in Petrochina, a Chinese government-owned oil company with vast investments in Sudan.
Last year, in a speech on energy policy to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, McCain cited China's investments in Sudan as an example of regimes that survive off free-flowing petro dollars.
"The politics of oil impede the global progress of our values, and restrains governments from acting on the most basic impulses of human decency," he said. "There is only one reason China has opposed sanctions to pressure Sudan to stop the killing in Darfur: China needs Sudan's oil."
On Wednesday, Rogers said: "Senator and Mrs. McCain remain committed to doing everything possible to end the genocide in Darfur."
For the McCains, the Sudan-related investments are among scores of different investments listed in his financial disclosure documents. Cindy McCain is heiress to a Phoenix-based beer distributing company whose fortune is in the $100 million range.
Sen. McCain is regularly ranked among the richest lawmakers in Congress, but under the terms of a prenuptial agreement, much of the family's assets are in Cindy McCain's name. While the disclosure reports provide the identity of income and assets held by candidates and their spouses, they only offer a range of the amount of the holding. Indeed, the report lists Cindy McCain's investments in the two mutual funds as simply "over $1,000,0000."
In tax returns he released last month, the Arizona senator reported a total income of $405,409 in 2007.
But Cindy McCain files separate tax returns which she has not made public. On Sunday, she stressed that she would not make her returns public even if her husband won the presidency.
The Sudan-related investments illustrate the hazards for wealthy candidates whose vast holdings undergo thorough scrutiny during a presidential campaign.
A year ago, several presidential candidates divested themselves of Sudan-related holdings. Among them were Democrats Barack Obama and John Edwards and Republicans Sam Brownback and Rudy Giuliani.
In 2006, Brownback was among members of Congress who wrote 44 governors to urge them to divest their employee pension funds from businesses linked to Sudan. He is now serving as a top adviser to McCain's campaign.
At the time, Obama placed the total value of his divestitures at $180,000. The sales of the investments were recorded in their financial disclosures.
According to Giuliani's financial disclosure, he invested between $500,000 and $1 million in a Vanguard Wellington Fund. Data compiled by the Sudan Divestment Task Force shows that Vanguard Wellington has a small percentage of stock in Schlumberger Ltd., a French oil field services company that does business in Sudan.
Edwards sold stock he and his wife owned in Schlumberger for between $40,000 and $100,000. He also invested $50,000 to $100,000 in Evergreen Equity Income Fund, another fund identified by the divestment task force as having stock in Sudan-related companies.
Now she can afford to load up on carbon credits.
In this April 3, 2008 file photo, Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is shown in Jacksonville, Fla. Cindy McCain, whose husband has been a critic of the violence in Sudan, is selling off more than $2 million in mutual funds whose holdings include companies that do business in the African nation. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, file)
at least we sweat the trivial in this country!
I think I hold one of those funds too. I’ll bet most of the unions that have endorsed Obama hold them in their pension plans. If everybody has to make their portfolios squeaky clean, Darfur-free, etc., there’s gonna be a whole lotta share dumping going on.
who gives a dang about cindy mcCain. we got more important problems like saving all the polar bears.
Yep. And Cindy was the one that was in partnerships with Charles Keating, not McCain, so there really is no need for any kind of disclosure--everything is on the up and up.
That is a good fund. I have some myself.
“Both funds have holdings in Oil & Natural Gas Corp., an India-based company that does business in Sudan. The American Funds Capital World Growth & Income Fund also has holdings in Petrochina, a Chinese government-owned oil company with vast investments in Sudan.”
China ....The biggest reason the people of Sudan are being slaughtered. Cindy needs to release her tax returns.
Give it a break calcowgirl.
Cindy needs to release her tax returns.
nope...she doesn’t..this is America...and we shouldn’t ask. Go pick on someone other than the MCCains for a while.....give all that nasty bitterness a nice little rest.
Give it a break calcowgirl.
yep...my thoughts exactly.
O, yea, very much so.
Yep. Give it a break.
You have a problem with holding our elected officials accountable?
Would you have a problem with it if this article was about Al Gore, John Kerry, or Hillary Clinton?
You’d probably be right here defending Whitewater and those cattle futures if she had an (R) next to her name!
First Cindy McCain’s finances are seperate by law from John McCain’s. Second it’s a generic investment fund which many, many people have. Third if you’re so interested in holding our elected officials responsible then try doing it to Obama once in a while.
“...then try doing it to Obama once in a while.”
I must have missed the Freeper Fairness Doctrine where is it required that one must post with equal time about the candidates of both parties. Here I was thinking that as long as we abided by JimRob’s rules, we conservatives got to pick which threads to post on and what to say on them. And if others didn’t like it, they were free to disregard or go elsewhere.
Or do you have the same issues with that pesky First Amendment that your candidate does?
Today's The Washington Times has the editorial "Cindy McCain's 'privacy'charade" which urges her to release them. May 14, 2008, p. A18).
Seems she has something to hide. Her contributions to John's campaign other than her corporate family jet? Contributions to radical Muslims - she did meet with Hashim Thaci? Psychiatric treatment for John? Gifts to La Raza? Contributions to Kerry?
Cindy McCain should post her tax statements. She is not an ordinary citizen but one who wants to be first lady.
Did you see the poll of who makes a good role model: Laura Bush, Hillary, Michelle O., Marge Simpson and Cindy M? Cindy scored the lowest getting only 4%, below Marge Simpson. Creepy is not in. She is too much like Cruella.
FYI, I had the same issue when Teresa Heinz Kerry declared she would not release her tax returns, as did most all freepers. She ultimately relented and released some information. Presidential candidate John Kerry was her spouse and benefited from her wealth just as Presidential candidate John McCain benefits from the wealth of Cindy. When we know as fact that Cindy was involved in partnerships with Keating while her husband "showed poor judgment" in the Keating Five matter, it makes her financial information all the more relevant.
As John McCain wants to impose all sorts of restrictions on U.S. energy companies through global warming regulation, and has stated that he wants a Kyoto-like treaty whether India and China participate or not, I find it interesting that Cindy has her money tied up in China and India energy interests.
You may trust politicians--I don't. Especially those who have shown questionable judgment in the past.
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