The `Buffettgate' Scandal and U.S. Left Movement: Part 1

Most people on the Upper West Side don’t think it’s democratic for unelected billionaire Wall Street speculators and “the 1 percent” to economically exploit us, avoid paying a fair share of taxes, individually control most of the nation’s wealth or use political campaign contributions and their federal corporate tax-exempted foundations to determine the political priorities of the U.S. Establishment’s political institutions—or the political agenda of the 2011 post-Occupy Wall Street U.S. left “Movement.”

And most essential workers on the Upper West Side are not receiving “charitable grants” from foundations established by billionaire Wall Street speculators or the children of Wall Street speculators.

Yet according to the Form 990 financial filing for 2019 of the NoVo Foundation—that Billionaire Wall Street Speculator Warren Buffett’s son, Peter Buffett, is co-president of—between Jan. 1, 2019 and Dec. 31, 2019, a “charitable grant” of $250,000 “for future payment” to New York City journalist Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now! Productions media firm was authorized, for example. And Peter Buffett's Brooklyn-based foundation owns millions of dollars’ worth of the Buffett family’s Berkshire Hathaway “Class A” corporate stock.

In addition, after the Berkshire Hathaway-linked “non-profit” foundation of Warren Buffett’s son and daughter-in-law launched its “Radical Hope Fund” in July 2017, the following NoVo Foundation “charitable grants”, totaling $34 million, to “non-profit” institutions or NGOs were authorized in June 2018:
1. A $4 million “charitable grant” to Grassroots International;
2. A $3.5 million “charitable grant” to the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance that’s partnering with the Climate Justice Alliance, the Indigenous Environmental Network and the Right to the City Alliance;
3. A $3 million “charitable grant” to the Detroit-based Allied Media Project;
4. A $2,640,000 “charitable grant” to the Blackbird Global Black Victory Lab;
5. A $2,530,000 “charitable grant” to the Trustees of the Upper West Side’s Columbia University for Columbia’s so-called “Center for Justice;”
6. A $2 million “charitable grant” to the Florida Immigration Coalition of “Radical Hope Florida”;
7. A $2 million “charitable grant” to the Texas-based JOLT ngo;
8. A $2 million “charitable grant” to the Movement Strategy Center;
9. A $2 million “charitable grant to the Women Cross DMZ, which partners with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom;
10. A $2 million “charitable grant” to the National Domestic Workers Alliance;
11. A $1.8 million “charitable grant” to the People’s Action Institute;
12. A $1,280,000 “charitable grant” to The Nile Forum;
13. A $1,240,000 “charitable grant” to Masimaname Women’s Rights International;
14. A $1,061,000 “charitable grant” to Water Protecter Legal Collective;
15. A $985,000 “charitable grant” to the African Women’s Development Fund;
16. A $900,000 “charitable grant” to Tewa Women Unite;
17. An $865,000 “charitable grant” to the “Collaborative Media Advisory Platforms:
18. A $500,000 “charitable grant” to The Movement for Black Lives; and
19. A $300,000 “charitable grant” to the Minneapolis and Oakland, California-based Black LGBTand Migrant Project.

And the following year, NoVo Foundation Co-President Peter Buffett’s “non-profit” foundation, itself, was given a “charitable donation” of over $192.8 million worth of corporate stock, coincidentally, by his father, Warren Buffett—whose individual personal net wealth under the current U.S. economic system increased from $67.5 billion to $102.2 billion between March 18, 2020 and Oct. 15, 2021.

Also, coincidentally, by July 4, 2021, the NoVo Foundation of Peter Buffett (whose own individual personal wealth is estimated to exceed $44 billion) had collected at least 14 million “B” shares of Berkshire Hathaway corporate stock, worth $4 billion in July 2021, in “charitable donations” from his father, between 2006 and 2021.

In addition, according to its 2019 Form 990 financial filing, on Dec. 31, 2019, the NoVo Foundation of Warren Buffett’s son (who was individually given $90,000 [equal to over $402,000 in 2021 U.S. dollars] worth of Berkshire Hathaway corporate stock when he was 19 years-old in 1977 and, in later years, also purchased farmland in Kingston, New York worth $13 million) also still owned 1,210 shares of Berkshire Hathaway Class A common stock, worth over $112 million. For, as the NoVo Foundation’s co-presidents, Peter Buffett and his wife Jennifer Buffett, noted in a May 2020 email: “NoVo’s annual budget is tied directly to the stock market.”

According to Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, “nepotism is defined as favoritism shown to a relative on a basis of relationship;” and “self-dealing” is defined as “financial dealing that is not at arm’s length.” So, in a Nov. 2, 2021 email, this writer, naturally, asked the NoVo Foundation if the NoVo Foundation is involved in an unethical nepotistic and self-dealing financial relationship with Warren Buffett and his for-profit Berkshire Hathaway stock speculation firm? But, as of Nov. 7, 2021, no email response from any NoVo Foundation spokesperson has yet been received. (end of part 1 of article)