Levy, Bob esq

Robert Levy, the chairman of the board of the Cato Institute, in beef w/ koch bros? coup?<div>
</div><div>crit tobacco master settlement, but mebbe just ideol wacko vs good old greed?
<div>FEAF</div><div>=</div><div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A.Levy">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A.Levy</a></div><div>wiki</div><div><div id="mw-content-text" lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr" style="direction: ltr; line-height: 19.1875px;">Robert A. Levy (born 1941 in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,DC" title="Washington, DC" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Washington, DC</a>) is the chairman of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarianism" title="Libertarianism" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">libertarian</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_Institute" title="Cato Institute" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Cato Institute</a> and the organizer and financier behind <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_v.Heller" title="District of Columbia v. Heller" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">District of Columbia v. Heller</a>, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court" title="Supreme Court" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Supreme Court</a> Case that established the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Second Amendment to the United States Constitution" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Second Amendment</a> as affirming an individual right to gun ownership. He is a Cato senior fellow and an author and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pundit(expert)" title="Pundit (expert)" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">pundit</a>. Before becoming a lawyer, he was the founder and CEO of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDA_Investment_Technologies" title="CDA Investment Technologies" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">CDA Investment Technologies</a>.<div id="toc" class="toc" style="border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 7px; display: table; zoom: 1; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><ul style="line-height: 1.5em; list-style-type: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A.Levy#Early_life" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">1 Early life</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A.Levy#Financial_career" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">2 Financial career</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A.Levy#Shift_to_law" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">3 Shift to law</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A.Levy#Scholar.2C_pundit.2C_and_author" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">4 Scholar, pundit, and author</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A.Levy#District_of_Columbia_v.Heller" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">5 District of Columbia v. Heller</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A.Levy#External_links_and_sources" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">6 External links and sources</a></li></ul></div><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Early life<span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; padding-right: 0.25em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert_A.Levy&action=edit&section=1&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Early life" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">edit</a>]</h2>Levy was born and grew up <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_class" title="Working class" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">working class</a> in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petworth,DC" title="Petworth, DC" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Petworth</a> neighborhood in Washington, DC. His parents ran a small hardware store. He attended college at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_University" title="American University" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">American University</a> and went on to earn a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ph.D." title="Ph.D." class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Ph.D.</a> in Business there in 1966.<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Financial career<span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; padding-right: 0.25em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">[</h2>After graduating he moved to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Spring,MD" title="Silver Spring, MD" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Silver Spring, MD</a> and founded CDA Investment Technologies. CDA was a provider of financial information and software. The company became a success and grew to have offices in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockville,MD" title="Rockville, MD" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Rockville, MD</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City" title="New York City" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">New York City</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago" title="Chicago" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Chicago</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco" title="San Francisco" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">San Francisco</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo" title="Tokyo" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Tokyo</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London" title="London" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">London</a>. It was particularly well known for its rankings of how <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_funds" title="Mutual funds" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">mutual funds</a> performed. Their quarterly release of rankings would prompt articles in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">The New York Times</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wall_Street_Journal" title="The Wall Street Journal" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">The Wall Street Journal</a>.Levy sold the company in 1986 to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands" title="Netherlands" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Dutch</a> publishing firm <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsevier" title="Elsevier" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Elsevier</a> for an undisclosed amount. In 1987 Elsevier sold CDA to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thomson_Corporation" title="The Thomson Corporation" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">The Thomson Corporation</a> for a profit. Levy stayed on as CEO through both sales, retiring from his position in 1991 to attend law school.<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Shift to law<span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; padding-right: 0.25em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">[</h2>In 1991 Levy retired from CDA Investment Technologies and entered <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mason_University_School_of_Law" title="George Mason University School of Law" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">George Mason University School of Law</a>. He graduated as class <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valedictorian" title="Valedictorian" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">valedictorian</a>. After graduation he clerked first for Judge <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royce_C.Lamberth" title="Royce C. Lamberth" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Royce C. Lamberth</a> on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_District_Court_for_the_District_of_Columbia" title="United States District Court for the District of Columbia" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">United States District Court for the District of Columbia</a> and then for Judge <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_H.Ginsburg" title="Douglas H. Ginsburg" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Douglas H. Ginsburg</a> on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Court_of_Appeals_for_the_District_of_Columbia_Circuit" title="United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit</a>.Levy sponsored the Robert A. Levy Fellowship in Law and Liberty at George Mason Law School. It provides full tuition and a yearly $22,000 stipend for three years to students beginning Law School who already have a Ph.D. in Economics, Finance, Political Science or a related field. A minimum of two fellowships are granted for each incoming class.<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Scholar, pundit, and author<span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; padding-right: 0.25em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">[</h2>In 1997 Levy became a Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute and an Adjunct Professor of Law at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgetown_University" title="Georgetown University" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Georgetown University</a>. At this point Levy began writing extensively, and the following years saw him publishing articles and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op-Ed" title="Op-Ed" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Op-Ed</a> pieces in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_Today" title="USA Today" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">USA Today</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post" title="The Washington Post" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">The Washington Post</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Review" title="National Review" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">National Review</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reason(magazine)" title="Reason (magazine)" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Reason</a> and many other publications. He also began making television and radio appearances, and has appeared on cable and network shows including <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightline(US_news_program)" title="Nightline (US news program)" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Nightline</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossfire(TV_series)" title="Crossfire (TV series)" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Crossfire</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_O%27Reilly_Factor" title="The O'Reilly Factor" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">The O'Reilly Factor</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardball_with_Chris_Matthews" title="Hardball with Chris Matthews" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Hardball with Chris Matthews</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Today(NBC_program)" title="Today (NBC program)" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">The Today Show</a>.Levy co-authored <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dirty_Dozen(book)" title="The Dirty Dozen (book)" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">The Dirty Dozen (book)</a>: How Twelve Supreme Court Cases Radically Expanded Government and Eroded Freedom with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_Mellor" title="Chip Mellor" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">William Mellor</a>. Although never a bestseller, The Dirty Dozen was excerpted by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbes" title="Forbes" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Forbes</a>, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, and enjoyed a generally positive critical reception.In 2004, Levy retired from his position at Georgetown and moved down to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naples,Florida" title="Naples, Florida" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Naples, Florida</a>. He remains a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. He was named to the institute's board of directors in 2007, and became chairman in 2008. He also sits on the boards of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_Justice" title="Institute for Justice" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Institute for Justice</a>, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_Society" title="Federalist Society" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Federalist Society</a>, and the George Mason University School of Law.<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">District of Columbia v. Heller<span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; padding-right: 0.25em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">[</h2><div class="rellink relarticle mainarticle" style="padding-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Main article: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_v.Heller" title="District of Columbia v. Heller" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">District of Columbia v. Heller</a></div>In 2002, Levy began recruiting <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaintiff" title="Plaintiff" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">plaintiffs</a> for a planned Second Amendment lawsuit against the District of Columbia. Although Levy has never owned a gun himself, he was interested in the issue as a constitutional scholar and believer in individual rights. He teamed up with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Clark_M.Neily_III&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Clark M. Neily III (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Clark M. Neily III</a> of the Institute for Justice and began finding and vetting District residents who had a legitimate and appealing reason for wanting a gun for self defense at home. They eventually settled on six residents: Shelly Parker, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_G.Palmer" title="Tom G. Palmer" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Tom Palmer</a>, Gillian St. Lawrence, Tracey Ambeau, George Lyon and Dick Heller. They tried to select a diverse group, and ended with men and women, black and white, and a variety of income levels. Levy only knew Palmer, a colleague at Cato, and none of the six knew each other before the case.The lawsuit was initially filed in 2003 as Parker v. District of Columbia. After several reversals and appeals, the case was heard by the Supreme Court on March 18, 2008. The court affirmed that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to gun ownership. Levy released a statement saying "Heller is merely the opening salvo in a series of litigations that will ultimately resolve what weapons and persons can be regulated and what restrictions are permissible. But because of Thursday’s decision, the prospects for reviving the original meaning of the Second Amendment are now substantially brighter."Levy financed the lawsuit and served as a co-counsel. As a result of his involvement in the case, Levy has been profiled by The New York Times and The Washington Post.<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">External links and sources<span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; padding-right: 0.25em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">[</h2><table class="metadata mbox-small plainlinks" style="clear: right; float: right; margin: 4px 0px 4px 1em; width: 238px; line-height: 1.25em; border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><tbody><tr><td class="mbox-image" style="border: none; padding: 2px 0px 2px 0.9em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png" width="30" height="40" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/45px-Commons-logo.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/59px-Commons-logo.svg.png 2x" style="border: none; vertical-align: middle;" /></td><td class="mbox-text plainlist" style="border: none; padding: 0.25em 0.9em; width: 169.75px;">Wikimedia Commons has media related to <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Robert_A.Levy" class="extiw" title="commons:Category:Robert A. Levy" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none !important; padding: 0px !important;">Robert A. Levy</a>.</td></tr></tbody></table><ul style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.3em 0px 0px 1.6em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAUAAAANAQMAAABb8jbLAAAABlBMVEX///8AUow5QSOjAAAAAXRSTlMAQObYZgAAABNJREFUCB1jYEABBQw/wLCAgQEAGpIDyT0IVcsAAAAASUVORK5CYII=); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.cato.org/people/robert-levy" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC"); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Robert A. Levy Biography</a>, Cato Institute</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/03/us/03bar.html?scp=1&sq=%22robert+a.+levy%22&st=nyt" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC"); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat;">"Carefully Plotted Course Propels Gun Case to Top"</a>, New York Times</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/17/AR2007031701055.html" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC"); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat;">"Lawyer Who Wiped Out D.C. Ban Says It's About Liberties, Not Guns"</a>, Washington Post</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.law.gmu.edu/admissions/levy_fellowships" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC"); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Robert A. Levy Fellowships</a>, George Mason University School of Law</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120960427159258093.html" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC"); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat;">"Judging the Judges"</a>, Wall Street Journal review of Dirty Dozen</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">"Supreme Court to hear challenge to DC gun law", by David G. Savage, Los Angeles Times, March 17, 2008</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?query=%22CDA+Investment+Technologies%22&srchst=nyt" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC"); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Coverage of CDA Quarterly Rankings</a>, New York Times</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://cato.org/gunban" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC"); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Levy Statement on Heller Ruling</a>, Cato Institute</li></ul><table cellspacing="0" class="navbox" style="border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); width: 996px; margin: 0.5em auto auto; clear: both; text-align: center; padding: 1px; border-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(253, 253, 253);"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 2px;"><table cellspacing="0" class="nowraplinks hlist navbox-inner" style="width: 992px; border-spacing: 0px; background-color: transparent;"><tbody><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="padding: 0.25em 1em; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap; background-color: rgb(221, 221, 255); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authority_control" title="Authority control" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Authority control</a></th><td class="navbox-list navbox-odd" style="line-height: 1.8em; 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<div>
</div><div>fight with kochs:</div><div>
</div><div><div id="entryhead" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><h1 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em;">Koch brothers vs. Cato: Cato Chairman Bob Levy refutes Charles Koch’s statement</h1><div class="blog-byline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px;">By <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/allen-mcduffee/2012/09/16/4cd0c0aa-0039-11e2-b257-e1c2b3548a4a_page.html" rel="author" style="">Allen McDuffee</a></div></div><div id="entrytext" class="entry-content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Last Thursday, <a target="blank" data-xslt="http" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/think-tanked/post/koch-brothers-vs-cato-charles-koch-releases-full-statement/2012/03/08/gIQAcWz0zR_blog.html" style="">Charles Koch released</a> his full statement regarding the lawsuit he and his brother, David, filed last month for <a target="blank" data-xslt="http" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/think-tanked/post/koch-brothers-sue-cato-institute-president/2012/03/01/gIQAUoHMkR_blog.html" style="">control of the Cato Institute</a>.Today, Cato Institute Chairman Bob Levy responded to Koch’s statement point-by-point, characterizing it as doing “nothing to address the genuine concerns expressed by their friends and ours that the action the Kochs have taken will pointlessly and grievously injure the movement for individual liberty that they have previously done so much to advance.”The full Levy response below the jump:<a name="pagebreak" style="text-decoration: underline;" /><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;"><a name="pagebreak" style="text-decoration: underline;" /><a name="pagebreak" style="text-decoration: underline;" /><a name="pagebreak" style="text-decoration: underline;" /><a name="pagebreak" style="text-decoration: underline;" /><a name="pagebreak" style="text-decoration: underline;" /><a name="pagebreak" style="text-decoration: underline;" /><a name="pagebreak" style="text-decoration: underline;" /><a name="pagebreak" style="text-decoration: underline;" /><a name="pagebreak" style="text-decoration: underline;">On March 1, after filing suit in Kansas court to gain control over the Cato Institute, Charles Koch issued a statement to the media: “We are not acting in a partisan manner, we seek no ‘takeover’ and this is not a hostile action.” The purpose of the suit, he insisted, was simply “to ensure that Cato stays true to its fundamental principles.”</a></blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">Last week, Mr. Koch circulated a longer “Statement Regarding the Cato Institute,” again professing his “steadfast intent” that Cato remain “a principled and nonpartisan organization that would advance the ideas that enable all people to prosper – by promoting individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peace.”</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">But actions speak louder than words. The Kochs’ takeover attempt has included packing Cato’s board of directors with individuals, almost all of whom are financially entangled with the Kochs and have no history of libertarian advocacy.</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">Moreover, their latest statement does nothing to address the genuine concerns expressed by their friends and ours that the action the Kochs have taken will pointlessly and grievously injure the movement for individual liberty that they have previously done so much to advance.</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">It should have been obvious to Charles Koch that filing this suit would necessarily result in a public battle that would threaten the Cato Institute’s credibility – wounding allied organizations and scholars in the process. You be the judge. Imagine that Charles Koch prevails in his lawsuit against Cato, and that he and his brother then “own” two-thirds of Cato’s stock. Would an Institute whose board of directors is appointed by the Kochs be viewed as a credible source of nonpartisan, nonaligned, independent commentary on vital public policy questions? Or would the think tank now known as Cato cease to exist because its 35-year unimpeachable reputation is critically damaged by the (unfortunately accurate) perception that Cato is literally “owned by the Kochs”?</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">In his latest message, Mr. Koch relates “the facts behind what we have done and why.” I regret to report that his facts are at best incomplete and accompanied by a host of misleading assertions. What follows are the Cato Institute’s responses to the central points Charles Koch raises.</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">Koch: “My brother David and I have every intent to ensure Cato continues its work on the full spectrum of libertarian issues for which it has become known.”</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">Recent actions by the Kochs elicit doubts about that proclamation. If the Kochs seek to ensure that Cato stays true to its fundamental libertarian principles, why would nearly all of their nominees to Cato’s board be Koch employees, consultants, and outside counsel who have never supported the Institute, never attended its events, never been interested in its governance, and never distinguished themselves as advocates for libertarianism?</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">Indeed, why did the Kochs appoint Koch Foundation vice president Kevin Gentry, a prominent official with the Virginia Republican Party, or Koch Industries spokesperson Nancy Pfotenhauer, who served with the McCain campaign and has defended, among other things, the military’s “don’t-ask-don’t tell” policy and the war in Iraq? Why did the Kochs nominate Tony Woodlief, who has described libertarianism as “a flawed and failed religion posing as a philosophy of governance”? Woodlief seems to like libertarians (and vice versa), but he’s nonetheless written that “libertarians sound like absolute fools when they talk about foreign policy.” Why did the Kochs nominate John Hinderaker, who sometimes describes himself as a neocon and believes “the original Patriot Act was entirely reasonable”?</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">Is that how the Kochs would ensure that Cato “continues its work on the full spectrum of libertarian issues”? What is it that Cato has done to convince Charles Koch that Cato’s work on libertarian issues needs help from directors who are demonstrably not libertarians and would never have been nominated by Cato’s then-current board?</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">Koch: “We proposed a standstill agreement to delay for one year or longer any discussion on the shareholders agreement.”</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">Yes, the Kochs proposed a standstill agreement that Cato rejected because the status quo could not be maintained. Too many key people had learned of the looming problem. Several of Cato’s largest donors had announced they would discontinue their donations until it became clear that the Kochs would not control Cato. A number of Cato benefactors said they would change their wills to eliminate Cato as a beneficiary if Koch dominance was an ongoing threat. Essential employees had expressed their intent to leave Cato unless the governance issue could be resolved in a timely manner. Cato’s search for professional talent, including most particularly a successor to president Ed Crane, was frustrated by the obligation to disclose the impending shareholder conflict.</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">The purpose of the Kochs’ disingenuous standstill proposal – confirmed in a meeting with me – was to “get past the election,” after which the Kochs would be less anxious about alienating the army of Cato’s libertarian loyalists. Put bluntly, a standstill would have jeopardized Cato’s day-to-day operations while resolving nothing.</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">Koch: “We asked to delay any shareholders meeting, which would have left the pre-March 1 board of directors in place during this period.”</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">The Institute’s bylaws require an annual meeting of shareholders on the first business day of December. The shareholders unanimously agreed to postpone the meeting for a “reasonable period” to try to resolve the dispute over Cato’s governance. After 90 days, during which the Kochs rejected a Cato proposal that addressed all their professed concerns (see more below), the meeting was rescheduled for March 1. Further delay would have been equivalent to the Kochs’ standstill proposal, which they knew Cato could not accept.</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">To set the record straight, the shareholders meeting did not precipitate anything. It simply satisfied a legal requirement and, in the end, allowed the Kochs to add four directors to Cato’s board. Cato and the Kochs could have continued their attempt to negotiate a settlement, reserving the right to take legal action should the negotiations prove fruitless. But one day before the meeting, the Kochs filed a lawsuit in Kansas (accompanied by a “Politico Exclusive”) that exposed this dispute to intense scrutiny. It should have been obvious to the Kochs that filing the lawsuit would generate a public battle that would – no matter which party prevailed – harm the entire libertarian movement.</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">Koch: “We proposed third-party mediation ... and alternative corporate structures.”</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">More specifically, the Kochs proposed non-binding mediation – merely a timing tactic that would have meant protracted and unproductive talks between Cato and Koch representatives instructed to “get past the election” and otherwise make no concessions.</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">As for alternative structures, the Kochs proposed two eight-person boards, one selected by them and one selected by Cato’s current board. After their initial selection, the two boards would function as one, but each of the two components would elect their own successors. In other words, the Kochs wanted to control not the three board seats they held at the time, but eight seats – an outcome even less acceptable to Cato than the standstill that had already been rejected. For more than a decade, Ed Crane had tried to persuade the Kochs to restructure the Institute’s governance, thereby removing the threat to Cato’s autonomy that 50 percent Koch control entailed. The Kochs’ “alternative” was another version of the same unsustainable 50/50 scheme.</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">The only real alternative was proposed by Cato: Abandon the shareholder structure and implement a member-elected board with the directors themselves serving as members – a governance arrangement favored by the Internal Revenue Service and practiced by most nonprofits (including Cato for more than 30 years). In return, the Kochs would be assured that their key stated objective – preserving original donor intent – would be satisfied. Charles and David Koch would have veto power over any material change in the Institute’s mission, sale of the Institute’s assets, merger, or other combination. Moreover, Ed Crane agreed to an immediate search for his successor; and the Kochs would have veto power over the person selected.</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">Revealingly, Crane’s offer to leave wasn’t enough for the Kochs; they demanded control of the Institute’s board in addition to its president. That point bears emphasizing: However much it might serve the Kochs’ interests to portray this dispute as a personality clash between two men, the facts do not support that narrative. In a bid to save the Institute and its mission, Ed Crane offered to retire in an expedited fashion in exchange for undoing the shareholder arrangement. Although Cato rejected the Kochs’ untenable demand that Crane’s successor be installed within eight weeks, this fight has never been about Crane’s position at Cato. It has always been about the efficacy of the Institute as an independent advocate for personal freedom and limited government.</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">Koch: “Every counterproposal we received required we forfeit our shareholder rights. ... [A] new shareholder was to be recognized in violation of our long-standing written agreement and the Institute’s bylaws and articles of incorporation.”</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">The threshold legal question in the lawsuit filed by the Kochs against Cato and its other two shareholders is how to interpret the murky provisions of an agreement signed more than three decades ago. The Kochs portray this dispute as a denial of their property rights. They ask how libertarians could fail to honor contractual commitments – as if the existence of the contract requires Cato to embrace Charles Koch’s interpretation of its terms.</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">Prior to the October 2011 death of Cato’s former chairman, William Niskanen, the Kochs controlled 50 percent of Cato’s stock. Today, the Kochs claim they control 67 percent because Niskanen’s shares must either be purchased by Cato or by its remaining shareholders. But the agreement signed by the shareholders provides that Cato may elect not to purchase the shares. Furthermore, the shares need not be offered to the other shareholders unless Cato’s board deems that a purchase by Cato would have been “inconsistent with its corporate purposes.” Otherwise, the shares can be transferred to Niskanen’s widow, Kathryn Washburn, in accordance with his last will and testament. Recognition of Ms. Washburn as a “new shareholder” would be wholly consistent with Cato’s bylaws and articles.</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">Cato’s position is correct: The Kochs control 50 but not 67 percent of the stock. Ultimately, however, the courts will resolve that issue. It is not the crucial issue. Rather, the crucial question is whether Cato can survive if its donors, employees, and the public policy community perceive that the Kochs have elected a pivotal number of the Institute’s directors – whether 50 percent or 67 percent – who would be responsive to Koch political and corporate demands.</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">Koch: “We want to ensure Cato remains consistent with the principles upon which it was founded.”</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">The best way to ensure Cato’s consistency with libertarian principles is to restore board, not shareholder, governance. Organizations such as the Ford and MacArthur foundations were led astray when apostate directors took control over large endowments. Significantly, Cato is not endowed and must raise all of its operating funds on an annual basis. Charles Koch provided seed money, but not an endowment that directors could expropriate.</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">As long as Cato’s board was self-perpetuating, it stayed rigorously on its libertarian course. Only now, with directors chosen by four shareholders in or approaching their 70s, who have uncertain mortalities and differing governance perspectives, has the course of the Institute become volatile and unpredictable. That’s proven by recent board elections, in which Charles and David Koch replaced committed libertarians with acknowledged non-libertarians. Those changes have not been “consistent with the principles upon which [Cato] was founded.” Who knows what could transpire when the remaining shareholders pass on?</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">The Kochs have repeatedly cast this dispute, not as a battle for control, but an effort to guard against ideological drift and preserve “donor intent.” In an email message sent by the Koch Foundation to its alumni network, recipients were told that Charles and David Koch, “as active donors contributing tens of millions to Cato ... feel the shareholder structure is important to preserve donor intent.”</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">Original donor intent is one factor to be recognized. But over the past 35 years, the Kochs have provided roughly nine percent of the Institute’s cumulative budget. More recently, it’s been four percent. Currently, it’s zero percent. The Cato directors replaced by Koch nominees have contributed nearly as much as Charles and David Koch and their allied foundations combined. Yet Charles Koch insists that the original donor’s intent is all that matters. What about the intent of the donors who now fund 100 percent of Cato’s operations?</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">In a normal business environment, with no endowment and ongoing capital requirements, the founders’ ownership position would be significantly diluted unless they continued to provide all of the funding. In this instance, not only do the Kochs not provide all of the funding, they do not provide any of the funding. The Kochs, who believe in market-oriented principles, would never finance a for-profit organization that gives total control to a few original donors who now contribute nothing and no control to current donors who now contribute everything.</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">Koch: “There is a great deal of speculation as to what direction we would take Cato if we were to be in a position to elect a majority of the board.”</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">Perhaps there is “a great deal of speculation,” but there need not be. David Koch and chief Koch lieutenant Rich Fink expressly announced their intentions at a meeting with me in November. The Kochs want Cato’s work to be more closely coordinated with Koch-allied groups such as Americans for Prosperity, a 501(c)(4) grassroots activist organization committed to free markets and limited government. Cato would become the source of “intellectual ammunition” for AFP – through position papers, a media presence, and speakers on hot-button issues. That might strike some libertarians as puzzling. After all, AFP already has a sister 501(c)(3) organization, the AFP Foundation. And Koch financial resources, which have not been directed toward Cato, are surely available to generate the intellectual ammunition that AFP wants – without compromising the integrity of the Cato Institute, which cannot take its marching orders from the Kochs or any of their affiliates.</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">Equally puzzling, Cato and AFP both declare their devotion to free markets and limited government. Why, then, would Cato’s current efforts not yield the kind of intellectual ammunition that could be used by AFP and others? When I asked David Koch and Rich Fink that question explicitly, they had no direct answer. The clear implication was, they wanted to be in the driver’s seat – not just with respect to Cato’s philosophic base, with which the Kochs had no disagreement, but also with respect to issue choice, timing, and even geographic focus. Of course, that is precisely the sort of coordination and direction that would gravely undermine Cato’s independence and decimate the Institute in its role as a source of intellectual ammunition for the public policy community at large.</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">Koch: “These officers and board members would act independently from me.”</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">Again, that’s an assertion we are supposed to take on faith. But Koch-backed appointees to Cato’s board now include the three largest shareholders of Koch Industries, a vice president at the Charles Koch Foundation, an authorized spokesperson for Koch Industries, and a distinguished Republican lawyer who represents and publicly speaks for Koch Industries.</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">Moreover, it is necessary but not sufficient for officers and board members to act independently of whoever controls an organization such as Cato. Just as important, the officers and board members must be viewed by outsiders as separate, scrupulously autonomous, and self-governing. Because of the Kochs’ vast corporate interests and their well-publicized engagement in electoral politics, Cato simply cannot be viewed as free of Koch influence if the Kochs elect the board of directors.</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">The Kochs point to the Mercatus Center and its sister organization, the Institute for Humane Studies, as examples of 501(c)(3) entities untainted by their close connection to Charles Koch, David Koch, and Rich Fink. But Mercatus is not Cato. It’s a university-based academic research center, led by a faculty director appointed by the provost of George Mason University, staffed primarily by GMU scholars, focused on domestic economic and regulatory issues, and, accordingly, much better insulated from outside control than Cato would be under the arrangement that the Kochs seek to implement. Moreover, Cato’s agenda is far broader than Mercatus’s, comprising not only domestic economic policy, but also foreign affairs, national defense, social issues, global freedom, constitutional questions, civil liberties, criminal justice, libertarian theory, and other areas.</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">Similarly, the Institute for Humane Studies, which also operates under a George Mason University umbrella, is devoted to the development of talented and productive students and scholars. While IHS shares Cato’s commitment to liberty, it is not immersed in ongoing public policy debates. And neither IHS nor Mercatus has shareholders who elect the organization’s board of directors.</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">Koch: “With its emphasis on education, Cato has contributed greatly to the marketplace of ideas and is now a respected thought leader.”</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">We couldn’t agree more. The testimonials to Cato’s effectiveness from independent parties on the political Left, Right, and Center who have followed the Koch lawsuit affirm Charles Koch’s public acknowledgment of our success. But why, then, have the Kochs insisted on precipitously replacing Cato president Ed Crane and ousting key members of the Institute’s board of directors who have contributed to that success? What is the rationale for a new leadership team and a new direction for our institute? We have repeatedly asked the Kochs and their representatives those very questions and have never received a straightforward answer, in private or in public.</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">Here is the bottom line: Cato cannot function as an independent voice for liberty if it is thought to be under the thumb of Charles Koch or Rich Fink – indeed, literally owned by the Koch family. Nor, if the lawsuit succeeds, will Cato be considered a reputable and credible source of “intellectual ammunition” by anyone outside the small circle of already committed libertarians. Instead, the Kochs will control a shell think-tank that can be dismissed out of hand as a front for Koch Industries. That’s the clear consensus of nearly everyone who has seen this lamentable and unwelcome dispute unfold.</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">Nothing good can come of this – not for Cato, not for the Kochs, and not for the libertarian movement. It’s time to restore common sense and adopt a governance structure for Cato that eliminates the prospect of Koch control.</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">=</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">
</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;"><div style="line-height: normal;"><div class="post" style="">Mr. Milloy and Mr. Borelli (and Mrs. Borelli too, via her husband) have worked together and in parallel since at least 1993, manipulating science to serve their ideological and political ends. During that time they’ve been funded by Philip Morris, Exxon Mobile, and some of the largest conservative foundations in the United States.But while they may not have worked alongside each other for much of that period, they do now: Mr. Milloy and Mr. Borelli are not only co-directors of the FEEI, but they’re both advisers for their politically conservative mutual fund,<a href="http://www.freeenterpriseactionfund.com/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">the Free Enterprise Action Fund (FEAFund)</a>.As advisers to the FEAFund, Mr. Milloy and Mr. Borelli split a 1.25% commission. According to <a href="http://www.freeenterpriseactionfund.com/FEAF_Annual.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">the FEAFund’s annual report for 2006</a>, the commission was just over $75,000. While this is a significant amount of money, it’s in addition to the $355,000 Mr. Milloy earned via FEEI and to the estimated $130,000 earned annually by the law and business consulting firm “Steven J. Milloy Inc.” (data available from <a href="http://www.manta.com/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Manta.com</a>). When combined, Mr. Milloy’s approximately $500,000 income would be more than sufficient for him to “self-fund” both JunkScience.com,DemandDebate.com, and all his other web projects out of his own personal wealth. Whether he actually does so is an open question.As mentioned above, Mr. Milloy earned a hefty “consulting fee” from CFIS that was largely paid by ExxonMobil. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to dig deeper into “Steven J. Milloy Inc.” to find out whom Mr. Milloy’s legal and consulting clients are. At least, not yet. But because it’s federal law that the identities of a mutual fund’s principle investors are public information, and because I hadn’t ever seen these investors detailed during my research, I chose totrack down the main sponsors of Mr. Milloy’s FEAFund. Their backing is what enables Mr. Milloy to earn an advisory commission on the FEAFund’s assets, and as such they qualify as indirect backers of Mr. Milloy’s efforts via JunkScience.com and DemandDebate.com.As of April 1, 2007, <a href="http://www.secinfo.com/dsVS7.u3Fe.htm#9jmi" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">SEC documents show</a> that there were eight investors who held more than 5% of the Free Enterprise Action Fund, of which seven held 9% or greater. These seven are William Dunn (19%), Arthur Dantchik (10%), Thomas L. Phillips (10%), Robert A. Levy (10%), the Claws Foundation (9%), The Randolph Foundation (9%), and Donors Capitol Fund (9%). These seven investors control a combined total of 76% of the total assets of the fund.The largest shareholder, William Dunn of Stuart, Florida, is the director of Dunn Capitol Management and the founder of <a href="http://dunns-foundation-for-the-advancement-of-right-thinking.idilogic.aidpage.com/dunns-foundation-for-the-advancement-of-right-thinking/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Dunn’s Foundation for the Advancement of Right Thinking</a>. William A. Dunn of Stuart, Florida is also a director of the <a href="http://www.cei.org/pages/bdunn.cfm" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Competitive Enterprise Institute</a>. In addition, he is a Director and a member of the Board of Trustees for the <a href="http://www.reason.org/faqs.shtml" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Reason Foundation</a> and a Director of the <a href="http://www.perc.org/about.php?id=719" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Property and Environment Research Center</a>(PERC). If you’ll recall from yesterday’s post, Mr. Milloy’s associate Kenneth P. Green (currently of the American Enterprise Institute) used to work for the Reason Foundation and Mr. Milloy himself works with the Competitive Enterprise Institute.Dunn’s Foundation for the Advancement of Right Thinking gave away over <a href="http://dunns-foundation-for-the-advancement-of-right-thinking.idilogic.aidpage.com/dunns-foundation-for-the-advancement-of-right-thinking/index.b124.u138.htm#GranteesList" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">$3 million in grants in 2004 alone</a>, with much of that money going to organizations associated in some way with Mr. Milloy or people he knows: $445,000 to the CEI, $370,000 to the Institute for Justice (see Arthur Dantchik below), $370,000 to PERC, $308,000 to the Reason Foundation, $185,000 to the Cato Institute, and $25,000 to the AEI. Some of the other backers for both the CEI, PERC, and Reason Foundation have been the <a href="http://www.mediatransparency.org/recipientsoffunder.php?funderID=9" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Charles G. Koch</a> and the <a href="http://www.mediatransparency.org/recipientsoffunder.php?funderID=10" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">David H. Koch</a> Charitable Foundations. The Charles G. Koch foundation funds the CEI and PERC to the tune of almost $60,000 and $15,000 respectively. The David H. Koch foundation granted $315,000 to the CEI between 1995 and 2001 and over $1.5 million to the Reason Foundation between 1986 and 2001.The next largest shareholder in the FEAFund is Arthur Dantchik of Bela Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. Mr. Dantchik is one of the founders of the Susquehanna Investment Group and is a Director for the <a href="http://www.ij.org/profile/board/index.html" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none;">Institute for Justice</a>. He works with fellow FEAFund shareholder and Cato Institute director/senior fellow Robert A. Levy (see below) at the aforementioned Institute for Justice. In addition, he is on the board of directors for another FEAFund shareholder, the Claws Foundation. According to Claws Foundation’s 2006 IRS Form 990-PF, one of Mr. Dantchik’s fellow Claws Foundation directors is a co-founder of the Susquehanna Investment Group and director of the <a href="http://www.cato.org/people/directors.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Cato Institute</a>, Jeffrey Yass. The other director of the Claws Foundation is Alan P. Dye, a director of<a href="http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?boardmember=12&page=10" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Freedom House</a> and <a href="http://www.ronpaul2008.com/contact/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">legal counsel to the Ron Paul for President campaign</a>. The Claws Foundation itself is not a political organization – it exists largely to fund medical research.Since 1999, Mr. Dantchik has given over <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?key=karmt&txtName=Dantchik,%20arthur&txtAll=Y&Order=N&Cycles=A&page=2" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">$263,000 to conservative causes, including approximately $22,000 to 2004 congressional candidates outside of his own state of Pennsylvania</a>. Mr. Dantchik’s Institute for Justice has received a total of <a href="http://www.mediatransparency.org/recipientsoffunder.php?funderID=9" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">$265,000 in donations from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation from 1986 through 2005</a>, another $1.35 million from the <a href="http://www.mediatransparency.org/recipientsoffunder.php?funderID=10" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">David H. Koch Charitable Foundation</a> between 1995 and 2001, and over $1.1 million from the <a href="http://www.mediatransparency.org/recipientfundergrants.php?funderID=3&recipientID=170" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Sarah Scaife Foundation</a> between 1992 and 2005. The Institute for Justice also received over $2 million from <a href="http://www.mediatransparency.org/recipientfundergrants.php?funderID=1&recipientID=170" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation</a> between 1992 and 2005, a massive conservative foundation that has also given extensively to the AIE (over $17 million between 1987 and 2005), the National Center for Policy Analysis (nearly $1.5 million), the Reason Foundation (nearly $1 million), the Cato Institute (about $860,000), the CEI (about $770,000), PERC (about $600,000), and the Thomas L. Phillips’ Philips Foundation (about $560,000), all between the mid 1980s and 2005. Thomas L. Phillips, creator of the Thomas L. Phillips Revocable Trust of McLean, Virginia, is another principle investor. Mr. Phillips has donated some money to local <a href="http://www.city-data.com/elec/elec-MCLEAN-VA.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">McLean, VA political races</a> and is the CEO of Phillips International, the parent company to the <a href="http://www.thephillipsfoundation.org/" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none;">Phillips Foundation</a>, <a href="http://www.eaglepub.com/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Eagle Publishing</a>, and <a href="http://www.healthydirections.com/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Healthy Directions LLC</a>(formerly Phillips Health). The Phillips Foundation is a non-profit foundation that offers journalism fellowships for journalists “who share the Foundation’s mission to advance constitutional principles, a democratic society and a vibrant free enterprise system,” with special fellowships for writing on the environment from a free-market perspective. Most of the <a href="http://www.thephillipsfoundation.org/index.php?q=node/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Phillips Foundation trustees</a> are associated with Phillips International in some way. Thomas Phillips is obvious, but the president of conservative uber-publisher Regnery Publishing, Alfred S Regnery, is another trustee, as is Eagle Publishing director Thomas A. Fuentes. Eagle Publishing is the parent company for <a href="http://www.regnery.com/index.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Regnery Publishing</a>, the publisher of the “Politically Incorrect Guides” and books like <a href="http://www.regnery.com/books/unfitforcommand.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Unfit for Command</a> and <a href="http://www.regnery.com/books/meninblack.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Men in Black</a>. Eagle Publishing also publishes the Evans-Novak Political Report, conservative “news” source <a href="http://www.humanevents.com/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Human Events</a> (which counts Ann Coulter as the legal affairs editor and Ms. Coulter, Newt Gingrich, Pat Buchanan, Robert Novak, Sen. James Imhoffe, Rush Limbaugh, Phyllis Schlafly, Michelle Malkin, Bill O’Reilly, and other conservative luminaries as commentators), and runs the <a href="http://www.conservativebookclub.com/DefaultJoin.asp?" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Conservative Book Club</a>. In addition, Mr. Phillips has given significant support to <a href="http://www.nccfpac.com/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">the National Conservative Campaign Fund (NCCF)</a>, a group whose <a href="http://www.nccfpac.com/officers.cfm" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">directors and advisory board</a> are composed of <a href="http://www.hartwilliams.com/blog/2006/07/unlimited-terms-of-endearment-part-vii.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Phillips and most of the rest of the leaders of the Phillips Foundation</a>. Mr. Phillips’ connections at the NCCF are good enough to have had <a href="http://www.nccfpac.com/events.cfm" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Vice PresidentDick Cheney to come over for an NCCF reception at the Phillips’ home</a>.Mr. Phillips has donated over $124,000 in support of conservative causes and elections since 1996, and his National Conservative Campaign Fund has given approximately $532,000 to Republican candidates since the 2000 election cycle (Source: <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.asp?strid=C00348359&cycle=2008" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Opensecrets.org</a>). In 2006, the Phillips Foundation raised $68,000 from Phillips International, $10,000 from Foundation trustee Robert Novak, and $5,000 from the Randolph Foundation, another significant investor in the Mr. Milloy’s FEAFund, and it has also received over <a href="http://www.mediatransparency.org/recipientsoffunder.php?funderID=9" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">$107,000 from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation from 2002 to 2005</a>.<a href="http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2007/11/28/we-berate-you-deride-a-look-at-steven-j-milloys-current-affiliates-and-backers/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2007/11/28/we-berate-you-deride-a-look-at-steven-j-milloys-current-affiliates-and-backers/</a> As I mentioned above, the <a href="http://www.mediatransparency.org/funderprofile.php?funderID=21" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Randolph Foundation</a> is another significant investor in Mr. Milloy’s FEAFund.Randolph Foundation trustee James Q. Wilson is also Chairman of the AEI’s <a href="http://www.aei.org/about/filter.,contentID.20038142214500076/default.asp" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Council of Academic Advisers</a>. The Randolph Foundation is a relatively new conservative foundation, so there’s not a lot of information on them available, but the 2005 Form 990 shows that the Foundation is a significant donor to the AEI ($50,000) and the CEI ($18,000) and, as mentioned above, a minor donor to the Phillips Foundation.And while we’re on the topic of the AEI, we should probably point out that another major conservative fund, the<a href="http://www.scaife.com/sarah06.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Sarah Scaife Foundation</a>, gave the AEI $575,000 in 2006, along with $60,000 for the Cato Institute, $350,000 for the CEI, $125,000 for the <a href="http://www.ncpa.org/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">National Center for Policy Analysis</a> (where Mr. Milloy’s associate and AEI “briber”Ken Green is an environment expert), and another $125,000 to the Reason Foundation.The second to last of the major investors is Robert A. Levy LLC, a business founded of Silver Spring Maryland. Robert A. Levy, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/17/AR2007031701055_pf.html" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">formerly of Silver Spring</a> and presently residing in Florida, is the <a href="http://www.cato.org/people/levy.html" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies and a member of the Board of Directors at the Cato Institute</a>. Mr. Levy gave <a href="http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/cdj02d00/pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Congressional testimony regarding the global tobacco settlement</a>, specifically suggesting that the settlement was “a shameful document, extorted by public officials who have perverted the rule of law to tap the deep pockets of a feckless and friendless industry.” Given that Mr. Levy still works for the Cato Institute with Dr. Michael Gough, and Dr. Gough is associated with Mr. Milloy through CFIS, it’s not unreasonable that Mr. Levy would be in a position to become a major shareholder in the FEAFund.The last major investor is <a href="http://www.donorscapitalfund.org/home.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Donors Capital Fund (DCFund)</a>, a large fund associated with <a href="http://www.donorstrust.org/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Donors Trust</a>, a group that professes to be “the sole donor-advised plan dedicated to promoting a free society and serving donors who serve that purpose.” Several of the directors of DCFund have connections to groups that are related to Mr. Milloy directly or through other avenues. For example, two of the directors are associated with the American Enterprise Institute, namely <a href="http://www.donorscapitalfund.org/home.html?x=6" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">AEI’s President, Christopher DeMuth</a>, and <a href="http://www.donorscapitalfund.org/home.html?x=6" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Steven F. Hayward, the F.K Weyerhaeuser Fellow in Law and Economics</a>. DCFund co-founder and Executive Director Whitney L. Ball once served as the Director of Development for the Cato Institute, is presently associated with <a href="http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">The Philanthropy Roundtable</a> and, via that association is also connected to <a href="http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/content.asp?pl=406&contentid=434" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Philanthropy Roundtable Vice-Chairman</a> and Randolph Foundation director Heather R. Higgins. Director Walter H. Mellor is the co-founder and President of the Institute for Justice, the same organization that fellow FEAFund principle investor Arthur Dantchik is a director of. The President of Donors Trust, Kimberly O. Dennis, is also the Executive Director of the <a href="http://www.searlefreedomtrust.org/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Searle Freedom Trust</a>, is Secretary for the Philanthropy Roundtable, and is a Director of PERC alongside fellow FEAFund principle investor William Dunn.In addition to all the personal connections between the various investors and the DCFund, the DCFund has also granted a total of $23,000 to the AEI, $44,000 to the Cato Institute, $36,000 to the Reason Foundation, and $12,000 each to the CEI and Institute for Justice in 2006 alone (from the 2006 Form 990).These connections are what I could find via the various foundations’ websites and public FEC, SEC, and IRS documents. However, over the years there have been many more connections between Mr. Milloy and various corporations, conservative individuals, and conservative foundations. Given Mr. Milloy’s history of working for businesses who want to discredit profit-suppressing scientific data and his connections throughout the entire conservative money machine, it’s probably reasonable to guess that his financial backers for any particular project are the groups or individuals with the most to lose – ExxonMobil and Shell Oil vs. global heating, Philip Morris vs. second-hand tobacco smoke, Monsanto et al vs. Horizon Organic, etc.Mr. Milloy’s connections to the tobacco lawsuits in the 1990s as an official supplier of deceit and “junk science” casts a long shadow over his credibility, but he could have escaped that shadow by now if he had ever chosen to do so. Instead, Mr. Milloy continues to associate with purveyors of scientific propaganda and disinformation such as Kenneth Green of the AEI, Thomas and Deneen Borelli of the National Center for Public Policy Research, Michael Gough of the Cato Institute, and both the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Fox News in toto. In addition, via what little we’ve been able to glean about who funds Mr. Milloy’s various websites and institutes, it’s obvious that he’s continued a pattern of working for corporations (and their direct representatives) who have a vested interest in manipulating and distorting science to their particular ends. As such, even ifDemandDebate.com’s survey of the IPCC “scientific consensus” were scientific, Mr. Milloy’s history and associations make him a dubious source for anything resembling real science, his publication of the ironically-titled <a href="http://www.junkscience.com/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">JunkScience.com</a> notwithstanding.It’s important to understand that Mr. Milloy’s connections with the AEI, CEI, Cato Institute, Reason Foundation, and through them to the Randolph Foundation, Philanthropy Roundtable, Donors Capital Fund and Trust, the Phillips Foundation, PERC, et al doesn’t mean that Mr. Milloy is the guiding force behind these connections. He is a single thread, albeit an important one, in an intricate tapestry of denial and misrepresentation of science in the service of conservative ideology. Through the deep pockets of his various corporate and conservative supporters over the years, he’s become a very effective conservative soldier in the war for the minds, and votes, of the people.Mr. Milloy’s connections and access to money fostered over years make him a very effective conservative soldier in the culture wars. And he’s not alone – the very same people who back Mr. Milloy also back Ken Green, Tom and Deneen Borelli, Michael Gough, John Yoo, C. Boyden Gray, to name just a few. Backed by money from corporations and wealthy conservative foundations, Mr. Milloy and his ilk attempt to use propaganda to further their own ideological ends, in this case by fostering a false sense of scientific uncertainty over global heating when in fact there is a <a href="http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2007/07/23/anti-global-heating-claims-a-reasonably-thorough-debunking/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">great deal of certainty about the science of global heating</a>. And they won’t go away just because President Bush leaves office in January 2009 – they have too much to lose, ideologically and financially, to just roll over and go away when their <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/02/20030226-11.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">favorite President</a> has finished his second term.Next time you read about something from JunkScience.com, DemandDebate.com, StopLabelingLies.com, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, or watch Steve Milloy on Fox News, remember who the source is.Monday: <a href="http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2007/11/26/we-berate-you-deride-demanddebatecoms-survey-on-the-scientific-consensus-surrounding-global-heating/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">DemandDebate.comâ€™s survey on the scientific consensus surrounding global heating</a>
Yesterday: <a href="http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2007/11/27/we-berate-you-deride-a-closer-look-at-the-background-of-steven-j-milloy-executive-director-of-demanddebatecom/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">A closer look at the background of Steven J. Milloy, executive director of DemandDebate.com</a>Many of the sources below were created specifically to enable citizens and patriots like all of us to track the influence of money on politics at all levels. They are relatively simple to use and enable anyone who is concerned about the corrupting influence of money on politics to hold their various political representatives’ feet to the proverbial fire. I used each of them repeatedly and regularly in the process of researching this series.<ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li><a href="http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/resources" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Sunlight Foundation’s list of Insanely Useful Sites</a></li><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">SourceWatch.org</a></li><li><a href="http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">The Legacy Tobacco Documents Library</a></li><li><a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">ExxonSecrets.org</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guidestar.com/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Guidestar</a></li><li><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">OpenSecrets.org</a></li><li><a href="http://www.mediatransparency.org/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">MediaTransparency.org</a></li></ul>
Related posts (automated):<ol style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li><a href="http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2007/11/27/we-berate-you-deride-a-closer-look-at-the-background-of-steven-j-milloy-executive-director-of-demanddebatecom/" rel="bookmark" title="We Berate, You Deride – A closer look at the background of Steven J. Milloy, executive director of " style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">DemandDebate.com">We Berate, You Deride – A closer look at the background of Steven J. Milloy, executive director of DemandDebate.com</a></li><li><a href="http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2007/11/26/we-berate-you-deride-demanddebatecoms-survey-on-the-scientific-consensus-surrounding-global-heating/" rel="bookmark" title="We Berate, You Deride – " style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">DemandDebate.com’s survey on the scientific consensus surrounding global heating">We Berate, You Deride – DemandDebate.com’s survey on the scientific consensus surrounding global heating</a></li><li><a href="http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2008/01/11/an-open-letter-to-steven-milloy/" rel="bookmark" title="An open letter to Steven Milloy" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">An open letter to Steven Milloy</a></li><li><a href="http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2007/08/22/vip-clinton-backers-want-a-white-vp-apparently/" rel="bookmark" title="VIP Clinton backers want a white VP, apparently" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">VIP Clinton backers want a white VP, apparently</a></li><li><a href="http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2012/02/09/steve-milloy-is-still-a-fact-fighter-for-hire/" rel="bookmark" title="Steve Milloy is still a fact fighter for hire" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Steve Milloy is still a fact fighter for hire</a></li></ol>  <a href="http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2007/11/28/we-berate-you-deride-a-look-at-steven-j-milloys-current-affiliates-and-backers/print/" title="Print This Post" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Print This Post</a>
<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: center;"><div class="post"><a href="http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2007/11/28/we-berate-you-deride-a-look-at-steven-j-milloys-current-affiliates-and-backers/trackback/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Copy this link for the trackback URL</a></div></div></div> -----The Free Enterprise Action Fund is a mutual fund set up by <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Steven_Milloy" title="Steven Milloy" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Steven Milloy</a> and <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Thomas_J.Borelli" title="Thomas J. Borelli" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Thomas J. Borelli</a>.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Free_Enterprise_Action_Fund#cite_note-0" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">[1]</a> Milloy is a <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Climate_skeptic" title="Climate skeptic" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">climate skeptic</a> and has been a Fox News commentator and a paid advocate for <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Phillip_Morris" title="Phillip Morris" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Phillip Morris</a>, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ExxonMobil" title="ExxonMobil" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">ExxonMobil</a>and other corporations. He is the founder of JunkScience.com. Borelli was formerly a tobacco scientist at Phillip Morrisand is a senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research. The Free Enterprise Action Fund aims to counter the trend by corporations to embrace <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Corporate_Social_Responsibility" title="Corporate Social Responsibility" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">corporate social responsibility</a> and campaigns by activist groups seeking to shift corporate social and environmental policy.On its website it states that the group aimed "to keep businesses focused on business rather than activist-defined CSR, the Fund aims to promote more generally our system of free enterprise. The Fund will direct advocacy and education efforts at corporate managements, institutional shareholders, the media and the public."In the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/2008_International_Conference_on_Climate_Change" title="2008 International Conference on Climate Change" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">2008 International Conference on Climate Change</a> organized by the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Heartland_Institute" title="Heartland Institute" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Heartland Institute</a>, Milloy stated that the Fund aims to "be a problem for managements and shareholders", and that he and Borelli "primarily work through shareholder proposals" to "get the shareholders and CEOs to think about what they're doing". He also stated, "We have filed numerous shareholder proposals with companies in the US <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Climate_Action_Partnership" title="Climate Action Partnership" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Climate Action Partnership</a>".<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Free_Enterprise_Action_Fund#cite_note-1" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">[2]</a>During 2005, the Fund underperformed the S&P 500 index by more than 50%, while rewarding its managers with above-average management fees of 2%.<table id="toc" class="toc" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; border-collapse: collapse;"><tbody><tr style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px;"><td style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px;"><div id="toctitle"><h2>Contents</h2> [<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Free_Enterprise_Action_Fund#" class="internal" id="togglelink" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">hide</a>] </div><ul><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Free_Enterprise_Action_Fund#Finances" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">1 Finances</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Free_Enterprise_Action_Fund#Personnel" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">2 Personnel</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Free_Enterprise_Action_Fund#Contact_details" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">3 Contact details</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Free_Enterprise_Action_Fund#Other_SourceWatch_resources" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">4 Other SourceWatch resources</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Free_Enterprise_Action_Fund#Sources" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">5 Sources</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Free_Enterprise_Action_Fund#External_links" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">6 External links</a></li></ul></td></tr></tbody></table><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Finances</h2>According to a January 26, 2006 report in the Chicago Tribune, "The fund's advocacy stance boils down to opposing many of the things supported by traditional 'social investment funds,' because issues like <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Global_warming" title="Global warming" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">global warming</a> or corporate governance distract business from its real role of operating in the best interests of shareholders." However, its performance as an investment has been less than stellar.The Tribune called it the "Stupid Investment of the Week ... Strip away the rhetoric, and you're getting a very expensive, underperforming index fund, while Milloy and partner Thomas Borelli get a platform for raising their pet issues. ... An expense ratio capped at 2 percent--ridiculously high for a portfolio of corporate giants--makes stock market returns unrealistic. From inception on March 1 of last year through Dec. 31, Free Enterprise Action returned 2.32 percent; the S&P 500 returned 4.72 percent. That's ugly."<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Free_Enterprise_Action_Fund#cite_note-2" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">[3]</a>In 2006, the Independent noted that: "The fund has about $6m (£4m) under management at the moment but claims to be growing fast" and "is supported by a network of right-wing think-tanks including the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Heritage_Foundation" title="Heritage Foundation" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Heritage Foundation</a>and the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Cato_Institute" title="Cato Institute" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Cato Institute</a>."<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Free_Enterprise_Action_Fund#cite_note-3" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">[4]</a><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Personnel</h2><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Thomas_J._Borelli" title="Thomas J. Borelli" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Thomas J. Borelli</a></li><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Steven_Milloy" title="Steven Milloy" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Steven Milloy</a></li></ul><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Contact details</h2>Free Enterprise Action Fund
P.O. Box 182490
Columbus, OH 43218-2490
Phone: 301-258-2852
Email: media AT freeenterpriseactionfund.com
Web: <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.freeenterpriseactionfund.com/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">http://www.freeenterpriseactionfund.com</a><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Other SourceWatch resources</h2><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/CSR_Watch.com" title="CSR Watch.com" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">CSR Watch.com</a></li></ul><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Sources</h2><ol class="references" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li id="cite_note-0"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Free_Enterprise_Action_Fund#cite_ref-0" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">↑</a> Kate Sheppard, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://motherjones.com/environment/2010/11/tom-borelli-phillip-morris-climate-change" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">"Thank You for Global Warming,"</a> Mother Jones, November 22, 2010</li><li id="cite_note-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Free_Enterprise_Action_Fund#cite_ref-1" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.heartland.org/bin/media/newyork08/audio/Monday/milloy.mp3" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">"How to Stop Climate Change Legislation in the US",</a> Steven Milloy, March 2008.</li><li id="cite_note-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Free_Enterprise_Action_Fund#cite_ref-2" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0601260062jan26,1,7543219.story" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0601260062jan26,1,7543219.story</a></li><li id="cite_note-3"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Free_Enterprise_Action_Fund#cite_ref-3" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article356920.ece" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article356920.ece</a></li></ol><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">External links</h2><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li>Larry Kudlow, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.csrwatch.com/Kudlow_interview.htm" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Steven Milloy of the Free Enterprise Action Fund discusses his organization's work against corporate social responsibility</a>", Kudlow & Company, CNBC, March 28, 2005.</li><li>Kathleen Rhodes, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=%5CNation%5Carchive%5C200503%5CNAT20050328a.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Free Enterprise Mutual Fund Seeks to Counter Leftist Influence</a>", CNSNews.com, March 28, 2005.</li><li>"<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.prwebdirect.com/releases/2005/4/prweb233691.htm" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Free Enterprise Action Fund Requests Audit Committee Review of JP Morgan Chase Capitulation to Social Activist Demands:</a> Action Fund Management, LLC, the investment adviser to the Free Enterprise Action Fund, called for the Audit Committee review", Media Release, April 26, 2005.</li><li>Free Enterprise Action Fund, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.freeenterpriseactionfund.com/pdfs/free_enterprise_prospectus.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Free Enterprise Action Fund Prospectus and Privacy Policy</a>", May 1, 2005.</li><li>Chuck Jaffe, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0601260062jan26,1,7543219.story" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">When Making Money Takes Back Seat to Advocacy</a>," Chicago Tribune, January 26, 2006.</li><li>Simon English, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article356920.ece" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Tell Lord Browne that we are coming</a>," The Independent (UK), April 10, 2006.</li><li>Amity Shlaes, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000039&sid=af2YTlE9STiM&refer=columnist_shlaes" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Mr. Immelt, Explain Yourself, Fund Says</a>", Bloomberg.com, April 5, 2006.</li><li>Daniel Gross, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.slate.com/id/2140997/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Thank You for Investing: A Very Curious Right-Wing Mutal Fund</a>," Slate.com, May 4, 2006.</li></ul>Published: 10 April 2006<div id="catlinks" class="catlinks" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Special:Categories" title="Special:Categories" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Categories</a>:<ul><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Front_groups_portal" title="Category:Front groups portal" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Front groups portal</a></li><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Climate_change" title="Category:Climate change" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Climate change</a></li><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Coal_Issues" title="Category:Coal Issues" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Coal Issues</a></li><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Energy" title="Category:Energy" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Energy</a></li><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Front_groups" title="Category:Front groups" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Front groups</a></li><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Global_warming_fronts" title="Category:Global warming fronts" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Global warming fronts</a></li><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Web_fronts" title="Category:Web fronts" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Web fronts</a></li><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Consumer_fronts" title="Category:Consumer fronts" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Consumer fronts</a></li><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Environment" title="Category:Environment" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Environment</a></li></ul></div></div></div><div style="line-height: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div></blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 17px; line-height: 21px;">
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