Congressman Jim Jordan, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, today subpoenaed two asset management firms, the Vanguard Group and Arjuna Capital, as part of his committee's investigation into the adequacy and enforcement of U.S. antitrust laws.
Jordan told Vanguard in a letter accompanying a subpoena that he was investigating “whether existing civil and criminal penalties and current antitrust law enforcement efforts are sufficient to deter anticompetitive collusion in the investment industry”—especially with regard to firms’ collective adoption and imposition of environmental, social and governance goals.
Specifically, Jordan said Vanguard “appears to have entered into collusive agreements to ‘decarbonize’ its assets under management and reduce emissions to net zero in ways that may violate U.S. antitrust law.”
Jordan said in the letter that a previous subpoena to Vanguard on July 6 failed to produce necessary records. That request pertained to documents and communications about the way the firm advances its ESG goals.
“Vanguard’s response without compulsory process has been inadequate. Accordingly, please find the enclosed subpoena,” Jordan wrote.
He also wrote that hundreds of the documents that Vanguard did provide were not in keeping with the committee’s requests, which included “copies of newsletters, out-of-office messages and meeting reminders, and documents related to Vanguard’s in-house sustainability efforts like installing solar panels at the office and celebrating Earth Day.”
Jordan’s letter and subpoena to Arjuna Capital voiced similar concerns—that the firm’s support of ESG, as well as its decarbonization agreements, may violate U.S. antitrust law.
“Contrary to your representation to the committee, the documents that Arjuna has produced suggest that Arjuna may have artificially limited its collection of responsive documents,” Jordan wrote.
Neither Vanguard nor Arjuna immediately responded to a request for comment.