A lesson from South Dakota
March 12, 2010
By Ben Evansky
South Dakota is the latest state to have adopted terror-free investment policies that target companies doing business with Iran. It joins some 18 other states and the District of Columbia. Observers say these states can teach the UN Security Council a thing or two when it comes to punishing Iran. The South Dakota law will force its state controlled pension fund to divest itself from companies doing business in Iran.
The bill’s original sponsor is Republican State Representative Dan Lederman who says the bill will affect nine million dollars of stocks owned by the state pension fund. Those equities will be divested over the next fifteen months. Hardest hit companies include Royal Dutch Shell and Total S.A. Lederman says “if Iran loses these partners the financial impact would be massive.”
