AFL-CIO Wants Blackstone to Register with SEC as Fund Company

The AFL-CIO sent a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission urging it to require Blackstone Group to register with it as a mutual fund company, given its holdings in investment securities.

In a letter to the SEC, the AFL-CIO said the private equity firm, one of the first in the U.S. to go public, “deliberately structured its public offering to hide the fact that the Blackstone Group is actually an offering of interests in pools of investment securities.”

Blackstone’s prospectus says it is a partnership, and thus exempt from requirements of investment companies, such as a fiduciary duty to stockholders or having a 75% of independent directors on its board.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Money Management Executive
MORE FROM FINANCIAL PLANNING