January 10, 2013
Securities and Exchange Comm.
Dear Securities and Exchange Comm.,
As a "high net worth" shareholder in quite a large number of publicly traded companies, I am disturbed by having to find out from the news media that some of my holdings are shares in publicly-traded corporations that spend significant sums of shareholder money for political purposes such as SuperPACs. In some cases, it appears that these purposes have no direct connection with the business, and may simply represent the political views of the CEO. As things now stand, these expenditures are hidden from shareholders within the financial statements that shareholders receive. This must change. Please approve new rules requiring disclosure of political spending by publicly-held companies.
In fact, I would prefer new rules that required prior approval of the shareholders before such expenditures were allowed. I gather that at the present time, though, there might not be enough support for such a rule. So, as a minimal improvement to the present lack of control over such expenditures, I would settle for a disclosure rule.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Sincerely,
Kenton Machina