State Investment Board is asked about Iran ties

A Jewish community group has asked the Minnesota State Board of Investment to disclose whether it is putting government pension money into corporations doing business with Iran.

"We are concerned about the threat of Iran obtaining nuclear weapons and its support of international terrorist organizations," said the Jan. 25 letter from the Jewish Community Relations Council to the board.

The council lists at least 14 major firms that it says have been identified by the U.S. Department of Energy and congressional research as providing major goods or services to develop petroleum in Iran.

Howard Bicker, director of the State Board of Investment, said Tuesday that the state had investments in some of those firms but is cutting ties with them in accordance with legislation passed last year requiring that the board not invest in firms doing business with Sudan. Some of the firms on the list had also been doing business in Sudan and "we're already in the process of divesting," he said. "Some of the other names were not involved in the Sudan."

Bicker said he hadn't had a chance to review all of the firms listed in the letter and determine whether they are involved in Iran.

The letter noted that Congress has passed laws imposing sanctions on firms that invested more than $20 million in oil and gas operations in Iran, "affecting their stock prices and making them risky for the shareholders."

PAT DOYLE