The Triple Threat Facing Sovereign Wealth Funds – Institutional Investor
by Richard Teitelbaum
In August, Bank of New York Mellon Corp. agreed to pay $14.8 million to settle civil charges by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act that it hired as interns unqualified relatives of executives of a sovereign wealth fund, whose identity was not disclosed. The bank did not admit or deny wrongdoing. A bank spokesman declined to comment.
“There are some funds that have taken it on the chin on the governance front,” says Patrick Schena, co-head of the Fletcher Network for Sovereign Wealth and Global Capital, at the Fletcher School of Tufts University, outside Boston. “They are feeling pressure. The media scrutiny is certainly there — international media, but also local. There’s also interest from the opposition politically.”