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General Assembly Raised Bill No. 7084
January Session, 2019
LCO No. 3449
Referred to Committee on GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION
AND ELECTIONS
Introduced by:
(GAE)
AN ACT CONCERNING TH E DIVESTMENT OF STATE FUNDS
INVESTED IN COMPANIES DOING BUSINESS IN VENEZUELA.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. (NEW) (Effective October 1, 2019) (a) For the purposes of 1
this section: 2
(1) "Company" means any corporation, utility, partnership, joint 3
venture, franchisor, franchisee, trust, entity investment vehicle, 4
financial institution or other entity or business association, including 5
all wholly-owned subsidiaries, majority-owned subsidiaries, parent 6
companies or affiliates of such entities or business associations that 7
exist for the purpose of making profit; 8
(2) "Doing business in Venezuela" means engaging in commerce in 9
any form in Venezuela, including maintaining equipment, facilities, 10
personnel or other apparatus of business or commerce in Venezuela, 11
including, but not limited to, the lease or ownership of real or personal 12
property in Venezuela or engaging in any business activity with the 13 Raised Bill No. 7084
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government of Venezuela; 14
(3) "Invest" means the commitment of funds or other assets to a 15
company, including, but not limited to, the ownership or control of a 16
share or interest in the company, and the ownership or control of a 17
bond or other debt instrument by the company; 18
(4) "Venezuela" means the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, 19
including its government and any of its agencies, instrumentalities or 20
political subdivisions; 21
(5) "Oil-related activities" include, but are not limited to, activities 22
such as (A) owning rights to oil blocks, (B) exporting, extracting, 23
producing, refining, processing, exploring for, transporting, selling or 24
trading of oil, (C) constructing, maintaining or operating a pipeline, 25
refinery or other oil field infrastructure, and (D) facilitating such 26
activities, including providing supplies and services in support of such 27
activities, but do not include the selling of retail gasoline and related 28
consumer products; and 29
(6) "Petroleum resources" means petroleum, petroleum byproducts 30
and natural gas. 31
(b) The State Treasurer shall review the major investment holdings 32
of the state for the purpose of determining the extent to which state 33
funds are invested in companies doing business in Venezuela. 34
Whenever feasible and consistent with the fiduciary duties of the State 35
Treasurer, the State Treasurer shall encourage companies in which 36
state funds are invested and that are doing business in Venezuela, as 37
identified by the United States Department of Treasury's Office of 38
Foreign Assets Control or the State Treasurer, to act responsibly and 39
not take actions that promote or otherwise enable Venezuela's 40
corruption and the impoverishment of the Venezuelan people. 41
(c) The State Treasurer (1) may divest, decide to not further invest 42
state funds or not enter into any future investment in any company 43
doing business in Venezuela; and (2) shall divest and not further invest 44 Raised Bill No. 7084
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in any security or instrument issued by Venezuela. In determining 45
whether to divest state funds in accordance with the provisions of 46
subdivision (1) of this subsection, the factors that the Treasurer shall 47
consider shall include, but need not be limited to, the following: (A) 48
Revenues paid by such company directly to the government of 49
Venezuela; (B) whether the company is doing business in Venezuela 50
that involves contracts with or provision of supplies or services to (i) 51
the government of Venezuela, (ii) companies in which the government 52
of Venezuela has any direct or indirect equity share, (iii) consortia or 53
projects commissioned by the government of Venezuela, or (iv) 54
companies involved in consortia or projects commissioned by the 55
government of Venezuela where such business involves oil-related 56
activities, investments that directly and significantly contribute to the 57
development of Venezuela's petroleum resources or any other business 58
activity that has been made the subject of economic sanctions imposed 59
by the United States government; (C) whether such company 60
knowingly obstructs lawful inquiries into its operations and 61
investments in Venezuela; (D) whether such company attempts to 62
circumvent any applicable sanctions of the United States; (E) the extent 63
of any humanitarian activities undertaken by such company in 64
Venezuela; (F) whether such company is authorized by the federal 65
government of the United States to do business in Venezuela; and (G) 66
any other factor that the Treasurer deems prudent. In the event that the 67
Treasurer determines that divestment of state funds is warranted from 68
a company in which state funds are invested due to such company 69
doing business in Venezuela, the Treasurer shall give notice to such 70
company that such funds shall be divested from such company for as 71
long as such company does business in Venezuela. 72
(d) The State Treasurer shall, at least once per fiscal year, provide a 73
report to the Investment Advisory Council on actions taken by the 74
Treasurer pursuant to the provisions of this section. 75
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Raised Bill No. 7084
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Section 1 October 1, 2019 New section
Statement of Purpose:
To require the Treasurer to consider divesting state funds invested in
companies doing business in Venezuela.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline,
except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is
not underlined.]