The Guardian: “These Types of Investment Have Been Subject to Increasingly Stringent US Sanctions, in Response to Russian Aggression in Ukraine”

PENNSYLVANIA — A new report from The Guardian reveals that David McCormick invested $415 million in sanctioned Russian debt as CEO of Bridgewater Associates.

The Guardian: Republican Senate candidate’s hedge fund managed $415m in Russian debt

• David McCormick, the Republican candidate for US Senate in Pennsylvania, led the largest hedge fund in the world while it managed and advised funds holding hundreds of millions of dollars in Russian debt, documents obtained by the Guardian show.

• Filings with the US Department of Labor, known as form 5500s, show that from 2017 to 2021, Bridgewater Associates managed funds holding as much as $415m in Russian sovereign bonds. Since 2019 these types of investment have been subject to increasingly stringent US sanctions, in response to Russian aggression in Ukraine.

• […] According to the firm itself, as co-CEO from 2017 to 2020 and then as sole CEO, McCormick was responsible for “overseeing the firm’s strategy, governance, and operations”.

• McCormick himself has said about his time as Bridgewater boss: “Whatever we did I’m responsible for.”

• Starting under Donald Trump and continuing under Joe Biden, the US imposed significant sanctions on Russian financial assets and institutions. […]

• In 2022, the US levied sanctions on Dmitriev and the RDIF, which the US treasury called “a slush fund for President Vladimir Putin … emblematic of Russia’s broader kleptocracy”.

• […] News of McCormick’s old firm’s links to significant Russian funds may prompt awkward questions – as did previous reporting of connections between Bridgewater and China and Saudi Arabia.

• In the case of Saudi Arabia, in early 2020, amid international anger over the murder of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi ordered by the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, it was reported that McCormick had urged that Bridgewater show loyalty to Riyadh.