hedge fund of TCI, according to international regulatory disclosures. Among left-leaning billionaires, Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer are enjoying wide public attention due to their big- spending presidential campaigns. But Hohn, a foreigner unknown to most Americans, arguably exercises comparable if not more influence on U.S. energy and environmental policy through his hedge fund, XR, and other advocacy groups. Complicating things further, Hohn’s operation, though rarely in the headlines, is deeply entwined with progressive philanthropy in America. The New York- based Rockefeller Foundation, which reported $4.3 billion in assets in 2017 and has given millions to environmental causes, maintained a stake worth $156.5 million in one of Hohn’s hedge funds, according to its 2017 IRS filing, up from its $118.8 million stake in 2015. Hohn’s funds are at the vanguard of activist institutional investors pressuring companies to adopt progressive policy goals. So-called ESG-focused investing (environmental, social, and governance) grew 38% from 2016 to 2018, amounting to $12 trillion of the $46.6 trillion in assets under management in the U.S., according to the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment. That figure is now at roughly $20 trillion. Hohn’s efforts to influence U.S. laws, politics, and the economy raise deeper questions about the power of global billionaires – specifically whether his American-focused lobbying and public relations campaigns violate the Lobbying Disclosure Act and the Foreign
investments that appear at odds with his foundation’s mission to usher an “urgent global transition to a zero-carbon society.” As late as 2012, nearly half of the assets under management in TCI – a total of about $4 billion – were invested in utilities, mainly fossil fuel producers. In 2012, TCI acquired a 1% stake, worth about $414 million, in Coal India Ltd., an Indian state-controlled mining and refinery company. The firm produces more than 80% of India’s coal. TCI acquired the stake via two subsidiaries based in tax shelters – TCI Cyprus Holdings and Ireland-based Talos Capital. Ireland’s corporate tax rate is 12.5%, compared with 19% in the U.K. TCI sued the Indian government and Coal India later that year, alleging that its pricing cost the company almost $19 billion. Records show that as recently as 2014, Hohn’s fund was still invested in Coal India. TCI managed more than $30 billion in assets as of November 30, making it among the world’s largest activist hedge funds. And despite Hohn’s political engagement, his fund is opaque, with at least nine different subsidiaries, such as TCI Fund Holdings Ltd. and TCI Advisory Services LLP. Connecticut-based GameChange Capital LLC, incorporated by the foundation in Delaware in 2011, is a private equity firm focused almost solely on acquiring positions in renewable energy firms. Hohn also owns the unregulated, Cayman Islands-based Children’s Investment Fund Management Ltd. That entity is the parent
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