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https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/toprecips.php?id=D000029205&cycle=2018

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Individuals and CEOs ggl ai 8 25

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desmog 12 24

Right-wing populists enjoy stretching the boundaries of hypocrisy by raging about the crimes of the supposed “liberal metropolitan elite” from the comfort of Trump Tower or their financier-funded offices.

Four of Nigel Farage’s five MPs (including Farage himself) used to work in the City of London. James McMurdock worked for Lehman Brothers – the now-deceased investment bank that went bust during the 2008 crash, while both McMurdock and party chair Zia Yusuf spent time at Goldman Sachs, which attracted the following description from Rolling Stone magazine in 2010:

“The world’s most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.”

As we all know, oil and gas reek of cash, so these investment funds and the pinstripe populists they bankroll have a vested interest in keeping fossil fuels flowing.

As revealed by DeSmog this week, Donald Trump’s new pick for UK ambassador has a cluster of oil and gas interests. Billionaire investor Warren Stephens and his family own a bunch of fossil fuel assets, including Stephens Natural Resources, which “continues to expand its production and reserves in the continental U.S. and offshore Gulf of Mexico”.

Campaigners have warned that Stephens’s appointment risks bringing a fossil fuel lobbyist in direct contact with the Labour government, potentially threatening its ambitious climate agenda.

Westminster is well acquainted with people like Stephens, whose vast corporate interests belie their anti-establishment prose.

This includes Tory peer Jon Moynihan (grandly known as Lord Moynihan of Chelsea), who has spent recent months blasting the UK’s climate targets, all while holding shares (worth at least £300,000) in fossil fuel giants including Shell and TotalEnergies. Truly a man of the people.

Elsewhere, dozens of campaign groups have penned a letter urging governments across the world not to fall for an industry-backed method of recording methane emissions. The groups say that the controversial GWP* system – which New Zealand appears close to adopting – is “open to significant abuse”.

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wealthy Donors and Fossil Fuel Interests Pump Millions into Super PACs for 2020 Elections

February 28th, 2020 by Alex Kotch Leave a Comment

…PAC ($2.1 million). Warren A. Stephens, CEO of investment bank Stephens, Inc.: $3.6 million. 1820 PAC ($250,000), America First Action ($500,000), Congressional Leadership Fund ($750,000), Security is Strength PAC ($50,000),…

paradise

Warren Stephens

Stephens, a major Republican donor, was the hidden co-owner of a payday lending company US authorities are suing for $50m after it allegedly used predatory tactics to deceive customers about the true cost of their loans.

He is identified in the leaked documents as one of the two main owners of a group of short-term lenders including Integrity Advance, which is accused of violating federal laws.

The Paradise Papers reveal that the billionaire financier, based in Arkansas, holds a 40% stake in the lender’s parent company, which donated widely to US political campaigns over recent years while its link to Stephens was generally unknown.

Since 2015, Integrity Advance has been fighting a legal action brought against it by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a financial industry watchdog.

Integrity Advance is accused by the CFPB of hiding the scale of fees consumers would face if they failed to repay their loans on time. The tactic meant some defaulting customers who had taken out typical $300 loans ended up having to pay $765 (255%) in interest and fees on top of what they borrowed, according to the watchdog.

The lender is also alleged to have used hidden provisions to continue removing money from customers’ bank accounts even after they had blocked payments, including during disputes over how much they owed.

The CFPB’s lawsuit says Integrity Advance and its CEO, James Carnes, broke the Truth in Lending Act, the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, and sections of the Dodd-Frank Act passed following the 2008 financial crisis that outlaw deceptive business practices.

Stephens, 60, has repeatedly criticised the agency for restricting the freedom of corporations.

The leaked files show Stephens held his stake in Integrity Advance through SI Hayfield, a company he formed in 2008 with an initial investment of $17.2m. The majority of this was funded by Stephens, his wife, Harriet, and their children’s trust fund. The golfer Phil Mickelson also invested $12,000.

According to Federal Election Commission records, Stephens has contributed at least $19.7m to campaign committees and national election candidates, including Mitt Romney, Marco Rubio and Chris Christie. He opposed Trump’s 2016 campaign.

In an email, a spokesman said Stephens declined to comment.

The seven Republican super-donors who keep money in tax havens ...

https://www.theguardian.com/news/.../us-republican-donors-offshore-paradise-papers

Nov 7, 2017 - Stephens, a major Republican donor, was the hidden co-owner of a payday lending company US authorities are suing for $50m after it allegedly used predatory tactics to deceive customers about the true cost of their loans. He is identified in the leaked documents as one of the two main owners of a group ...

Stephens Group: News | OpenSecrets

https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/news.php?id=D000029205&cycle=2016

April 29, 2016 | The last time the Democratic and Republican parties had to stage the quadrennial spectacles that serve as their presidential nominating ... that he will not seek the GOP nomination for president in 2016, effectively leaving the foreign policy hawk's top super PAC donors to look elsewhere for someone to back.

Meet the Republican Mega-Donors Spending Millions to Take Down ...

https://news.vice.com/.../meet-the-republican-mega-donors-spending-millions-to-take-...

Mar 26, 2016 - A small group of extremely rich Republicans have given millions of dollars in recent weeks to various super PACs with the sole purpose of stopping Trump. ... Among its million-dollar donors are Warren Stephens, a billionaire Republican investment banker from Arkansas, and Paul Singer, a billionaire ...

Arkansas billionaire becomes a leading stop-Trump donor | News ...

www.fortworthbusiness.com/...donor/article_7f5d8fdc-ef6c-11e5-b60e-338181cef1b...

Mar 21, 2016 - Stephens and his brother, Jackson "Steve" Stephens Jr., gave a total of $3.5 million last month to two of these groups, according to filings Sunday with the Federal Elections ... Stephens is a longtime Republican donor, although he supported Arkansas' own Bill Clinton in his first presidential run in 1992.

Big GOP donors launch group to elect Republican women - POLITICO

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/.../republican-women-congress-donors-24417...

Oct 25, 2017 - "Winning for Women" is designed to become a conservative counterweight to EMILY's List.

Missing: stephens

March For Our Lives: GOP Donor Launches Gun Control Group | Time

time.com › Politics › march for our lives

Mar 24, 2018 - A major Republican donor fed up with congressional inaction has launched a gun control advocacy group with support from both Republican congressmen and other donors and fundraisers to persuade Congress to pass comprehensive gun control reform. Called Americans for Gun Safety Now, the group ...

Missing: stephens

Prominent Republican Donor Issues Ultimatum on Assault Weapons ...

https://www.nytimes.com/.../prominent-republican-donor-issues-ultimatum-on-assault-w...

Feb 17, 2018 - Al Hoffman Jr., a powerful Republican donor based in Florida, said he would end his contributions to candidates and groups that oppose a ban on ... Mr. Hoffman acknowledged it was “not likely” that he would succeed in making the party more open to an assault weapons ban, and said Republicans were ...

Seeking Reset, Trump Dines With Some of His Biggest Donors - The ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/18/us/.../trump-dinner-top-donors-tax-reform.html

Aug 18, 2017 - But people familiar with the dinner cast it as part of an ongoing series of donor-outreach events headlined by Mr. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence to cultivate and maintain support for the administration's agenda from wealthy activists who have the capacity to fund conservative advocacy groups that ...

Big U.S. political donors play the Paradise Papers offshore game ...

https://www.univision.com › Univision News › World

Nov 7, 2017 - In recent years, Warren Stephens himself has been an increasingly generous political donor. During the last federal election cycle, Stephens gave more than $13 million to conservative groups and candidates, making him the eighth largest Republican benefactor of the campaign cycle. Stephens opposed ...

On the Front Lines of the GOP's Civil War - Esquire

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a14428464/gop-never-trump/

Dec 20, 2017 - In 2016, a group of Republicans broke ranks with their party to try to stop Donald Trump from winning the presidency. ... They're polishing up a manifesto and plan to bring out a book, “a kind of Federalist 2.0,” says one contributor, the columnist Bret Stephens, a Never Trumper exile from The Wall Street ...