Investment bank JPMorgan Chase has urged share holders to vote against proposals calling on the bank to stop investing in firms that "substantially contribute to genocide or crimes against humanity."
JPMorgan has a big stake in Chinese oil firm PetroChina, which has been condemned for financing genocide in Sudan.
Investors against Genocide, a non-profit organisation, said the $1.8 billion investment by JPMorgan in PetroChina “works against the spirit” of US sanctions on the Sudanese regime.
However the bank says it its business practices already "reflect our support and respect for the protection of fundamental human rights and the prevention of crimes against humanity" and noted that "a vast majority" of the shares of PetroChina owned by JPMorgan are "at the direction of our customers, who are the share owners."
Investors against Genocide argue that a huge share of PetroChina holdings is linked to JPMorgan’s wealth management business and that most customers will not be involved in choosing where their wealth is invested.
That means those investors are "inadvertently investing in these terrible companies that are helping to fund genocide and have no idea," said Eric Cohen, co-founder and chairman of Investors Against Genocide.
Last year a similar proposal by the group got 8% of JPMorgan's shareholder votes.
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