Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) is leaning on the policy expertise of a George Soros-funded nonprofit staffed by self-described communists and anti-Israel radicals in her latest push to crack down on private equity.
Warren last week cited testimony from the Private Equity Stakeholder Project while announcing her Corporate Crimes Against Health Care Act of 2024. Chris Noble, the project's policy director, called the new bill "a necessary and timely solution" for health care systems that allegedly have been corrupted by private equity firms.
Staffers at the Private Equity Stakeholder Project have whitewashed Palestinian terrorists, promoted calls for Israel's destruction, and shut down traffic alongside other anti-Israel radicals.
K Agbebiyi, a senior housing campaign coordinator with the project, said in an April blog post that she is "striving to be a disciplined Communist." She posted a picture of herself at an anti-Israel rally in November—less than a month after Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel—holding a "Dykes for Palestine" sign. In December, she posted a mural of a Hamas terrorist that was titled, "Liberation looks like terrorism in the eyes of the oppressor."
Azani Creeks, a research coordinator for the project, also participated in anti-Israel protests following Hamas's Oct. 7 attack. She rallied in January alongside the Democratic Socialists of America in a coordinated effort to shut down traffic and cause chaos in New York City. Hundreds of protesters, including Creeks, were ultimately arrested, according to the New York Post. That wasn't her first time shutting down traffic either—she did the same thing in a 2019 Washington, D.C., climate change protest where several arrests took place, the New York Times reported.
The day of Hamas's terrorist attack, a senior researcher at the stakeholder project, Abhilasha Bhola, "liked" a social media post including the phrase "from the river to the sea," Fox Business reported in April. The slogan is widely understood to call for Israel's destruction.
The revelation underscores the extent to which leftists rely upon left-wing nonprofits rife with apologists for Palestinian terrorists. Last week, for example, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) highlighted the group Patriotic Millionaires—a collection of wealthy left-wingers who push for progressive economic policies—while calling on President Joe Biden to support a global minimum tax rate. The day after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, Patriotic Millionaires associate fellow Bob Lord wrote online, "The young men who did this have been denied all hope for their entire lives. Stop blaming Hamas. Look in the damn mirror!" Patriotic Millionaires didn't immediately return a request for comment.
Warren has repeatedly elevated the stakeholder project, including in April, when she lauded the group for its efforts "to hold private equity accountable." That same month, the stakeholder project's health care director, Eileen O'Grady, testified at a hearing organized by Warren and fellow Massachusetts senator Ed Markey (D.), during which she criticized private equity's influence on health care. "There have been many stories of private equity firms looting health care companies at the cost of patient care," O'Grady said during the April hearing.
In 2022, Warren once again sought to drum up support for her crusade against private equity. She echoed findings from a Private Equity Stakeholder Project report that argued private equity executives are profiting from climate change. She also cited the group over its support for legislation she introduced in 2021 that sought to "fundamentally reform the private equity industry."
The Private Equity Stakeholder Project has received financial backing from Soros's Foundation to Promote Open Society, along with other powerful left-wing groups such as the Ford Foundation and the Surdna Foundation, according to the Capital Research Center's Influence Watch project.
Neither Warren's office nor the Private Equity Stakeholder Project responded to the Washington Free Beacon's requests for comment.