February 2, 2013
Dear Members of the Securities and Exchange Commission:
Secret political spending by corporations is fraud.
Read the word and dig its full meaning: fraud.
Period.
I am an investor and an attorney. I am politically active, as a voter, and donor (my mere thousands may not matter in the grand scheme, but it's a lot to me). Corporate spending on politics is a material factor a significant number of investors do consider.
So I strongly support the SEC issuing a rule in the near future that would require publicly traded corporations to publicly disclose all their spending on political activities.
Both shareholders and the public deserve to know how much a given corporation spends on politics (directly and through intermediaries), and which candidates are being promoted or attacked.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Sincerely,
Mark Palermo