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PRESS RELEASEOffice of Missouri State
Treasurer |
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PRESS RELEASEOffice of Missouri State
Treasurer |
JEFFERSON CITY – Missouri Treasurer Sarah Steelman today appeared live on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” program to discuss Missouri’s new investment fund that screens stocks with ties to companies or countries that sanction terrorism. The program is anchored and co-produced by Maria Bartiromo.
“Terrorism is front and center again on Wall Street after yesterday’s thwarted plot targeting flights from London to the United States, and as the war on terror drags on, how can individual investors join the fight?” Bartiromo said. “One state treasurer is saying ‘Show-me your anti-terror money,’ State Treasurer Sarah Steelman of Missouri.”
Steelman outlined Missouri establishing a terror-screened fund, the Missouri Investment Trust, which is screened against companies that directly support terrorism or companies that have contracts with nations sanctioned by the U.S. government as a state sponsor of terrorism.
“We have made a decision in Missouri that public tax dollars should not be used to finance terrorism anywhere in the world,” Steelman said. “Is it more difficult to look for companies that might be supporting terrorism or is it more difficult for a soldier who watches his buddy die because of a roadside bomb or is it more difficult for a family to wait at an airport to see if their children are going to get off that plane like we’ve seen in the last couple of days because of terrorism?”
Steelman said it is illegal for American citizens or companies to be involved with sanctioned nations, such as Iran, Syria, Sudan, Cuba or North Korea, yet some international companies are deeply involved in sanctioned nations and would be screened from the fund.
“The United States has sanctioned countries including Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Cuba, and Americans can’t do business there – that is against the law -- yet we would send public dollars to invest in companies that are doing business with these very countries that are threatening not only our soldiers but our country and innocent people all around the world?” Steelman said. “That is the tie that I am talking about when I talk about a company with a direct financial relationship with the government of a country that is sanctioned by the United States.”