Buffett Stock Creates Potential Conflict for Gates Fund

Berkshire Hathaway stock — donated by the philanthropist Warren Buffett to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — creates a conflict for the foundation and its charitable work in Sudan, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Berkshire Hathaway invests in PetroChina, which is owned by a Chinese government petroleum corporation, CNPC. CNPC drills for oil in Sudan, whose government uses proceeds from drilling to underwrite military operations and support other militia tied to the mass killings in the Darfur region, according to the article. More than 200,000 people in Darfur have died in what the United States has called a genocide, the article states.

The article is one of several that the Times has published that point out situations in which Gates Foundation stock holdings appear to undermine its charitable works.

Mr. Buffett has publicly defended his company’s holdings in PetroChina by saying that PetroChina itself does not drill in Sudan. About its relationship to CNPC, he says that subsidiaries cannot control the actions of parent companies.

Read The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s coverage of the Darfur crisis, as well as reports about Mr. Buffett’s gift to the Gates Foundation.

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