Prominent Silicon Valley businessman to divest Bank of America funds

[KamaAina]

http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_19258590

A prominent member of Silicon Valley's exclusive "1 percent" club is pulling his money out of Bank of America and cutting all ties with the bank -- and he hopes others will follow his lead.

Mike Fox Sr., a beer magnate and well-known philanthropist, is set to announce Friday that he is divesting his long-held personal Bank of America account, which contains several hundred thousand dollars, in an effort to promote social and economic justice.

Fox said Thursday that he has also asked his executive team to move a $4 million-plus line of credit held by M.E. Fox & Co. from Bank of America to another institution. Fox's firm is a 46-year-old wholesale distributor of beer, water, New Age beverages and Red Bull energy drink.

"I think the only way I can influence people is through my personal example," said Fox, 75, who called the amount he was divesting "rather small compared to the egregiousness" of Bank of America's slow response in modifying home mortgages.

:bounce: :thumbsup: :yourock: :woohoo:

Maybe now Banksters of Amerika will pay attention, now that even their fellow 1 percenters are turning on them.

[Firebrand Gary]

1. Republicorp are you listening? We are just getting started and there is nothing you can do.

I love the fact that we have achieved so much in the last 6 weeks, think of what we can achieve in the next 6 months.

[dkf]

2. It would be really Hilarious if all this tipped B of A into trouble and kills off the FDIC fund.

[KamaAina]

4. "Too big to fail"?

:shrug:

[myrna minx]

3. K&R - Wow! n.t

[EFerrari]

5. Great catch, KamaAina! Let's tweet this all over the place

and thank him! :applause: :woohoo: :applause:

[femrap]

6. good for Mike Fox. nt

[Myrina]

7. If he really wanted to promote social and economic justice ...

.... he'd take that 'several hundred thousand dollars' and give it away to local nonprofs or family service agencies/shelters who could make a difference with it in a matter of hours.

[EFerrari]

8. Well, moving that money doesn't preclude donating it, does it?

This way he gets to help out with our divestment action, too.

[kath]

9. Well, the article did say that he's a "well-known philanthropist", so he's probably giving away a

a decent amount of $$ already, at least more than many of the 1%ers.

[KamaAina]

10. I work at a local nonprof

and suggested just that to our development director. :-)

[EFerrari]

11. I called MEFox to ask if they had a twitter acct so people could say thanks

and they don't but they are having a press conference at 11 a.m. so maybe more info by that time.

[City Lights]

12. Cool!

:bounce:

[EFerrari]

13. Hey, it was that same interfaith based group @PACTS

that asked Fox to divest. Remember, they moved 3 million out about a week or so ago?

They are AWESOME!

[sarcasmo]

14. 4 million from MR Fox and millions from the customers closing accounts will

make them stand up and take notice.