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Trump Is Eyeing Greenland. His Commerce Nominee Has Financial Ties There.

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Trump Is Eyeing Greenland. His Commerce Nominee Has Financial Ties There.

As President Trump argues the acquisition of Greenland is key to the economic security of the United States, he is flanked by wealthy investors who have eyed the island as a potentially lucrative venue for mining metals and minerals.

Among them is his commerce secretary nominee, Howard Lutnick, who has a financial stake in the island’s mining promise through an investment his financial firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, holds in a company called Critical Metals Corp., securities filings show. Critical Metals plans to start the mining process as soon as 2026, according to company executives.

Mr. Lutnick, whose Senate confirmation hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, plans to resign as chief executive Cantor Fitzgerald, a privately held firm, if confirmed. His interests in the firm would be sold off within 90 days of his confirmation, according to his government ethics agreement, and during that period he would not participate in any matter that has a “direct and predictable effect” on the firm unless he received a waiver that allowed him to do so.

As head of the Commerce Department, which promotes the interests of U.S. businesses abroad, Mr. Lutnick would oversee all tariff and trade policy, Mr. Trump has said. That could include Greenland, if the president’s efforts to expand the country’s role on the island are successful.

It remains to be seen whether Mr. Lutnick would recuse himself entirely from policy issues related to Greenland. Neither he nor the White House responded to requests for comment.

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American influence on Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, could benefit miners there, potentially enriching investors in Critical Metals and, in turn, Mr. Lutnick’s former business partners at Cantor Fitzgerald, which he ran for more than 30 years.

Critical Metals has been pushing for U.S. government financing for its project since last fall, but was told to shelve its request until the new administration arrived in Washington, according to Tony Sage, its chief executive. Mr. Sage said he regarded Mr. Lutnick and his firm as a possible conduit for discussion of future investment by the U.S. government.

“They could” be beneficial, Mr. Sage said, adding, “Having an investor, already, does help.”

Mr. Lutnick is one of several supporters of Mr. Trump who have ties to investments in Greenland and could be in position to shape the president’s thinking on the subject.

That circle includes the Silicon Valley investor Marc Andreessen, the tech entrepreneur Sam Altman and the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Either as individuals or through their companies, all three have donated either to Mr. Trump’s re-election efforts or his inaugural committee. Through their venture capital firms, all three are also investors in KoBold Metals, a privately held company based in Berkeley, Calif., that has explored for minerals and metals in Greenland.

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A spokeswoman for Mr. Andreessen’s venture capital firm declined to comment. Mr. Altman and a spokesman for Mr. Bezos did not respond to requests for comment.

A spokesman for KoBold Metals declined to say whether the firm, which surveyed Disko Island off the west coast of Greenland for mining opportunities in 2022, was likely to do business there in the future.

Greenland’s glaciers, freezing weather and paucity of roads and other infrastructure have long made it a difficult environment for investment. Some mining executives and investors believe that an enhanced arrangement with the United States could benefit U.S. national security and create economic opportunities for both sides.

“I think it could be a win-win for the U.S. and for Greenland, regardless of how it ends up, whether it’s just a closer working relationship or whether we provide defense or something to Greenland,” said Peter Leidel, whose private-equity firm, Yorktown Partners, holds a controlling stake in a mining project there.

The idea of purchasing Greenland has been a hobby horse for Mr. Trump for many years. During his first term, he framed it as an opportunity to expand the United States’ global footprint, and in 2019 he even privately floated the possibility of trading Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, for Greenland, according to Peter Baker and Susan Glasser’s book “The Divider.” But his hopes fizzled amid objections from Denmark, the U.S. ally that oversees Greenland, and some of Mr. Trump’s advisers dismissed the idea as divisive and outlandish, according to the book.

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Under former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the United States continued pushing for enhanced involvement in Greenland, albeit more quietly. State Department officials traveled to the island last year to discuss its natural resources, and the U.S. Export-Import Bank expressed interest in financing a graphite mining project operated by a British company. Mining executives said they also hoped that Mr. Biden’s push for clean energy might benefit their rare-earth mining efforts, given that rare earths are essential components in electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels.

Undercutting China’s dominance in rare earths mining was also part of Biden administration’s calculus, mining executives recalled. “They made very clear that they would like this material to go to the U.S.,” said Greg Barnes, who spoke to U.S. officials before selling his stake in the Tanbreez rare-earths mine in southern Greenland to Critical Metals, the New York-based company in which Cantor Fitzgerald is invested, last summer. That concern over Chinese involvement is almost certain to loom even larger under Mr. Trump, who has long cast China as a malign influence in U.S. and global affairs.

Greenland got little or no airtime during Mr. Trump’s 2024 campaign. But on Dec. 22, as he announced Ken Howery as his choice for U.S. ambassador to Denmark on his social media site, Mr. Trump called “ownership and control” of the island “an absolute necessity.” In other posts and comments that followed, he described Greenland as crucial to U.S. national security.

Denmark has so far resisted the idea of a sale. But its efforts to find advocates in Washington have so far foundered. Meanwhile, Mr. Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., undertook a brief good will tour around Greenland this month. And the elder Mr. Trump has refused to rule out the idea of taking Greenland by force.

In interviews, mining executives and investors in Greenland said they weren’t banking on any particular outcome to Mr. Trump’s push for the island. But most of them said the level of interest the trans-Atlantic debate had stirred, and the resources it could draw to Greenland’s mining opportunities, was a net positive.

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“The Trump presidency, I think, enhances our little investment,” said Mr. Leidel, the Yorktown Partners investor, who donated $315,000 to Mr. Trump’s re-election efforts, according to federal records. He said that his donation was motivated by a desire for the United States “to do well,” and not by any expectations around mining in Greenland.

Kitty Bennett contributed research.

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Amazon Union Push Falls Short at North Carolina Warehouse

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Amazon Union Push Falls Short at North Carolina Warehouse

Amazon workers voted overwhelmingly against a bid to unionize their North Carolina warehouse, the National Labor Relations Board said on Saturday, the latest setback in labor organizing efforts at the e-commerce giant.

Workers at the RDU1 fulfillment center in Garner, outside of Raleigh, voted 2,447 to 829 against unionizing with Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment, or CAUSE, an upstart union founded by warehouse workers in 2022.

Organizers at the warehouse, which employs more than 4,000 people, sought starting wages of $30 an hour. The current pay range is about $18 to $24, Amazon said. The union also demanded longer lunch breaks and increased vacation time.

In a statement, leaders of CAUSE said the election outcome was the result of Amazon’s “relentless and illegal efforts to intimidate us.” They did not say whether they would challenge the outcome, but vowed to keep trying to organize.

Eileen Hards, a spokeswoman for Amazon, wrote: “We’re glad that our team in Garner was able to have their voices heard, and that they chose to keep a direct relationship with Amazon.”

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Leading up to the election, the worker-led union filed charges with the labor relations board accusing Amazon of interfering with employees’ protected union activity. The company gave preferential treatment to workers who did not support the union, according to the charges filed by CAUSE. Amazon also unfairly fired the co-founder of the union one week before workers filed for a union election in December, CAUSE said in a filing.

Amazon denied any election interference. Employees have the choice of whether to join a union, and the company talks “openly, candidly and respectfully” about unionization, Ms. Hards said before the vote. She said the CAUSE co-founder had been fired for “repeated misconduct that included making derogatory and racist comments to his co-workers.”

Addressing demands voiced by the union, Ms. Hards said the company already offered safe workplaces, competitive pay, industry-leading benefits and consistent scheduling. The CAUSE union, she added, “has no experience representing workers or their interests.”

On top of what they characterized as resistance from the company, organizers at the warehouse faced an environment in the South that has historically been hostile to unions. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, union membership in North Carolina last year was 2.4 percent, the lowest rate in the country and far below the national average of 9.9 percent.

Amazon has aggressively fended off union campaigns and stalled the bargaining process in multiple segments of its business, including warehouses, delivery operations and grocery stores.

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In 2022, workers at a Staten Island warehouse in New York voted to form Amazon’s first union in the United States; it is now affiliated with the Teamsters union. Amazon has challenged the election outcome in court, and has refused to recognize the union or bargain with it. Delivery drivers, who work for third-party package delivery companies serving Amazon, have also mounted campaigns with the Teamsters.

The Trump administration’s moves at the labor relations board since the inauguration — including the replacement of the general counsel appointed in the Biden administration, who was considered friendly to labor — could further embolden employers to clamp down on organizing and refuse to bargain, labor law experts said.

Workers at a Philadelphia location of Whole Foods Market voted in January to affiliate with the United Food and Commercial Workers union, establishing the first union beachhead at the Amazon-owned grocery chain. In a filing with the labor board challenging the election, the company cited President Trump’s firing of a Democratic board member, which stripped the board of a quorum necessary to issue decisions.

In January, Amazon said that it was closing its warehouse and logistics operations in the Canadian province of Quebec, where unions had gained a foothold among some Amazon workers, and that it would lay off 1,700 employees.

The North Carolina election is not the first unsuccessful union bid among Amazon warehouse workers. In 2021, workers at a warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., voted against unionizing, but labor officials later ruled that Amazon had illegally influenced the election. Workers voted a second time in 2022, but the outcome was too close to call, prompting a labor judge to order a third election. That vote has yet to be held, and Amazon has denied wrongdoing.

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“Ultimately, the biggest thing that we’re fighting for is dignity,” Italo Medelius-Marsano, a member of the CAUSE organizing committee who works at the RDU1 ship dock, said before the vote. “We’re making sure Amazon knows that we are human beings,” he said, citing the movement’s catch phrase: “I am not a robot.”

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Google and Meta used to champion DEI efforts. Why Big Tech is pulling back

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Google and Meta used to champion DEI efforts. Why Big Tech is pulling back

More than a decade ago, outcries about the lack of diversity in the tech industry reverberated across major Silicon Valley companies from Facebook to Google.

Women and minorities spoke out about feeling out of place in male-dominated professions, civil rights activists urged businesses to do more and tech workers like Tracy Chou, who was a software engineer at Pinterest at the time, pushed companies to release diversity data.

“There was already some movement in that direction, at least a feeling like we should do this,” said Chou, who wrote a viral Medium post in 2013 about the lack of female engineers. “What I happened to crystallize was a line of thinking that really resonated with the more data-driven side of the industry.”

For diversity advocates like Chou, the tide has now turned. Facing more political pressure and legal risks during President Trump’s second administration, tech companies that previously championed diversity including Google, Meta (Facebook’s parent company) and Amazon are scaling back, scrapping or rethinking their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts.

It’s part of a broader retrenchment across the business community. About 20% of companies in the Standard & Poor’s 100 have retreated from DEI commitments since Trump was elected, according to a Bloomberg News analysis. Those include Target Corp., McDonald’s Corp. and Disney.

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Trump and Elon Musk, who spent more than $200 million to help elect the president to a second term, have been vocal critics of DEI programs. In a fact sheet about Trump’s executive order, the White House said many corporations use DEI as “an excuse for biased and unlawful employment practices,” sending a message to businesses that they could get sued. Companies such as Google and Amazon also contract with federal agencies.

“They’re reading the room, especially with Trump and Elon running the country,” said Chou, now the chief executive of Block Party, a tool that helps users combat online harassment.

Corporate pledges to fight racism including from Musk’s company Tesla heightened after the 2020 police murder of George Floyd, sparking massive protests against police brutality.

But legal threats emerged in 2023 after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down race-based affirmative action in college admissions. As tech companies cut thousands of jobs, the massive cuts also hit DEI teams.

Spending on DEI roles at S&P 500 companies started to fall in 2022 as mass layoffs swept the tech industry, data from Revelio Labs show. In November 2024, these businesses spent an estimated $1.3 billion on DEI roles, down 10% compared to the same month in 2022.

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From December 2022 to December 2024, tech companies including Google’s parent company Alphabet, Netflix and Amazon spent less on roles that promoted diversity and inclusion.

During this period, Tesla’s DEI spending was down by 84% and Meta’s DEI spending declined by 53%, according to Revelio Labs, which analyzes data from various sources including online profiles on sites like LinkedIn or Jobcase.

Tech companies have pointed to legal risks in internal memos about why they’re rethinking how they approach their DEI programs.

“They wanted to keep President Trump on their good side, because they don’t want to deal with any legal ramifications from the federal government,” said Jared Slater, partner at Ervin Cohen & Jessup.

The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.

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Meta’s Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, a former Trump critic who also said previously that improving diversity in tech is important, has in recent months aligned himself with the president and talked about the benefits of “masculine energy.” The company told its employees in an internal memo that the legal and policy landscape surrounding DEI changed and pointed to Supreme Court decisions.

“The term ‘DEI’ has also become charged, in part because it is understood by some as a practice that suggests preferential treatment of some groups over others,” said Janelle Gale, Meta’s head of human resources, in an internal memo.

The company said it wanted to serve everyone and would no longer use its “diversity slate approach” in which hiring managers consider candidates from underrepresented backgrounds when interviewing for an open role.

Meta also ended representation goals for women and minorities, a program to source supplies from diverse-owned businesses and scrapped its DEI teams. Maxine Williams, Meta’s chief diversity officer, became the vice president of accessibility and engagement.

Websites for Meta’s unconscious bias training and TechPrep, a resource hub for underrepresented people and their parents to learn about computer science, are no longer online.

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Meta declined to comment but confirmed the memo, first published by Axios.

Google said this month it was reevaluating its DEI programs “following recent court decisions and executive orders on this topic.” The company said it would no longer set hiring targets tied to improving diversity after previously setting a goal of increasing by 30% the proportion of “leadership representation of underrepresented groups” by 2025.

And Amazon told its employees that it’s “winding down” certain programs after evaluating their “effectiveness, impact and ROI [return on investment]” but didn’t specify which ones.

In a December memo to employees reviewed by The Times, the company’s Vice President of inclusive experiences and technology Candi Castleberry told employees that the company is focused on “programs with proven outcomes” while also aiming to “foster a more truly inclusive culture.” Amazon shared the memo.

Amazon Studios — which announced a series of ambitious inclusion goals in June 2021 — also has been making changes. Last September, the Culver City-based studio removed a public-facing inclusion playbook from its website along with a goal that films or series with three or more people in above-line roles such as directors and producers included at least 30% women and 30% members of an underrepresented group.

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“We’ve said from the beginning that our efforts to ensure diverse and inclusive storytelling would be fluid and change over time,” Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser said in a statement. He added that the company strives to “tell the very best stories, while empowering diverse voices in our storytelling wherever possible.”

Meanwhile, some tech companies such as Apple are fighting back against anti-DEI proposals from conservative shareholders. The National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank, is asking that Apple consider ending its DEI programs, policies, departments and goals.

“The risks to the company’s bottom line stem from potentially getting sued by individuals for discrimination, potentially getting legal action from the government for violating civil rights law, and then the market backlash,” said Stefan Padfield, executive director of the center’s Free Enterprise Project.

Apple recommended that shareholders reject the proposal at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Feb. 25.

Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment, but the company said in a document to shareholders that the anti-DEI proposal was “unnecessary” partly because its board and management oversee legal and regulatory risks.

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Netflix has remained committed to DEI after Trump’s executive order, stating in its annual report that a “major focus” is “fostering a work environment that is culturally diverse, inclusive and equitable” because it wants more people and cultures to see themselves reflected on screen.

The Los Gatos-based streaming giant said in its annual report released in January that it educates its recruiters on how to hire more inclusively.

A Netflix spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment.

“What we need to do in this moment in time is to stand up, to speak up, to be strategic and to keep moving forward,” said Vernā Myers, former Netflix vice president of inclusion strategy and founder of the Vernā Myers Co., a consultancy on diversity, equity and inclusion. “We can’t allow this kind of bullying to make us so fearful that we are paralyzed and that we draw back from our core values.”

The backlash against DEI is not only affecting workplace culture, but nonprofits focused on recruiting more women and minorities into the tech industry.

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Last year, Women Who Code, a nonprofit that got its start in California, closed because of a lack of funding. AnitaB.org, which brings together women in tech at its annual Grace Hopper Celebration, cut its workforce in 2024 and pointed to a downturn in corporate DEI investments.

Some diversity advocates like Freada Kapor Klein, co-chair of the Kapor Center, question whether some tech companies ever took DEI that seriously.

Tech giants seemed more open to diversity efforts in times of talent shortages because it helps open up a pool of potential hires, she said. Now they’re rolling back DEI efforts amid layoffs and a political climate in which Republicans hold more power.

“It is now fashionable to be anti-DEI. It’s now fashionable to talk about masculine energy. It’s now fashionable … to align oneself with MAGA interests,” she said. “So you have to kind of ask, what is it that people actually, really and truly believe?”

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Prominent Cryptocurrency Investor Faces Senate Tax Inquiry

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Prominent Cryptocurrency Investor Faces Senate Tax Inquiry

A Senate committee is investigating whether a prominent cryptocurrency investor violated federal tax law to save hundreds of millions of dollars after he moved to Puerto Rico, a popular offshore tax haven, according to a letter reviewed by The New York Times.

Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, sent the letter on Jan. 9 to Dan Morehead, the founder of Pantera Capital, one the largest crypto investment firms.

The letter said the Senate Finance Committee was investigating tax compliance by wealthy Americans who had moved to Puerto Rico to take advantage of a special tax break for the island’s residents that can reduce tax bills to zero.

The investigation was focused on people who had improperly applied the tax break to avoid paying taxes on income that was earned outside Puerto Rico, according to the letter.

“In most cases, the majority of the gain is actually U.S. source income, reportable on U.S. tax returns, and subject to U.S. tax,” the letter said.

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The letter requested detailed information from Mr. Morehead about $850 million in investment profits he made after moving to Puerto Rico in 2020, noting that he “may have treated” the gains as exempt from U.S. taxes.

Mr. Morehead said in a statement that he moved to Puerto Rico in 2021. “I believe I acted appropriately with respect to my taxes,” he said.

Mr. Wyden was chairman of the Finance Committee until Republicans took control of the Senate last month. During his tenure, the committee investigated several strategies that wealthy Americans have used to avoid paying taxes.

It is unclear what may come of the investigation. Under the Biden administration, federal regulators and Democratic lawmakers cracked down on the crypto industry and prominent tech figures. President Trump and Republicans in Congress have embraced crypto, promising less aggressive enforcement.

A spokesman for Mr. Wyden said the investigation was “ongoing” and declined further comment. A spokeswoman for the Finance Committee’s new chair, Senator Michael D. Crapo of Idaho, did not respond to a request for comment.

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For more than a decade, wealthy Americans, including many tech entrepreneurs, have flocked to Puerto Rico to take advantage of Act 60, a tax break established in 2012 under a different name. Any capital gains income generated in the U.S. territory isn’t subject to local or federal income tax.

In recent years, the Justice Department, the Internal Revenue Service and lawmakers have investigated abuses of that system. The I.R.S. has said its criminal division identified about 100 people who may have committed tax evasion.

A former Goldman Sachs trader, Mr. Morehead founded Pantera in the early 2000s and turned it into one of the largest investment firms focused on crypto, backing more than 100 crypto companies over the last 12 years. Those include major U.S. crypto firms such as Circle, Ripple and Coinbase, which operates the largest marketplace for digital currencies in the United States.

After Mr. Morehead moved to Puerto Rico, Pantera sold “a large position” and generated capital gains “in excess of $1 billion,” according to Mr. Wyden’s letter. Mr. Morehead’s share of the gains totaled more than $850 million, the letter said.

The letter asked Mr. Morehead to share information related to those transactions, including the names of his tax advisers. It also asked him to share a list of any assets he sold while a resident of Puerto Rico, including cryptocurrencies.

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