BlackRock increased spending on private security for CEO Larry Fink more than threefold last year after he came under withering criticism for the asset manager’s commitment to investing in companies that promote controversial ESG strategies.
The world’s largest fund manager, with some $10.5 trillion in assets under its watch, filed a proxy statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this month that showed it spent $563,513 to “upgrade the home security systems” at Fink’s residences last year.
The company also spent $216,837 on bodyguards to protect Fink, according to the proxy, which was cited by Financial Times.
BlackRock first set up personal security plans for Fink and Robert Kapito, the company president, in 2022.
BlackRock has seen Republican-led state investment funds pull around $13.3 billion in assets from the company in protest of its funding companies to focus on ESG — environmental, social and governance.
The Texas Permanent School Fund was the latest to announce that it would pull money out of BlackRock. It said it would remove $8.5 billion from the company — the largest removal to date by a Republican-led pension fund.
West Virginia, Florida, Missouri and other GOP-led states have also joined the backlash against BlackRock over its ESG policies.
BlackRock was issued a legal warning by Mississippi over “false and misleading statements to Mississippi investors” tied to its ESG investment strategies.
The Mississippi secretary of state Michael Watson and the state’s Securities Division issued a ‘summary cease and desist order’ and served a warning to impose a multimillion-dollar administrative penalty on the New York-based money manager.
Analysts consider BlackRock the leader in asset managers who steer investment funds toward companies seen as transitioning to low-carbon.
The data firm Morningstar said that last year’s market for climate transition funds grew by 25% to nearly $210 billion.
Of the five best-selling climate funds last year, four were BlackRock products, according to Bloomberg News.
In total, BlackRock funds recorded $13.9 billion in net flows, according to Morningstar.