Several Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) board of directors have donated thousands of dollars or have direct ties to prominent Democrat politicians like Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
Federal investigators are now looking into the role the board may have played in the bank’s abrupt collapse, as the board members failed to prevent its failure.
Although there are 12 board members, several are under scrutiny for their donations and connections to Democrat politicians.
For example, director Kate Mitchell is a Clinton mega-donor who prayed at a shrine after Clinton’s 2016 loss to former President Donald Trump.
“I prayed for me and us to get beyond our grieving and shock and to figure out how to engage and listen to what happened and come back together,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell also donated $50,000 to Clinton’s victory fund, the New York Post reported.
Next on the list of Democrat donor SVB board members is Garen K. Staglin, who owns a vineyard less than 15 minutes from the Pelosi family’s Napa Valley estate.
As the New York Post detailed:
He gave the Biden Victory Fund $10,000 in 2020, sent $54,000 to Clinton’s Hillary Victory Fund in 2016 (on top of $25,000 the previous year), backed Obama with $35,800 in 2011 and gave the Democratic National Committee $10,000 last year.
Some board members also donated to political action committees for Democrat Senate Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), who sits on the Senate Banking Committee, the Post reported.
Another SVB board member with ties to prominent Democrats is Mary J. Miller, who served as Obama’s domestic finance undersecretary at the Treasury Department for two years.
As the Post noted, the “only real banker” on the Silicon Valley Bank board is Tom King, the board’s newest director. King brings 35 years of experience in investment banking to the board, having spent years at Citigroup and Barclays.
The Post also reported that the Democrat donations were part of SVB’s business model. “Everyone knew it was the go-to bank for woke CEOs,” one source told the outlet. “They knew they were aligned politically. The companies SVB loaned money to all had a woke agenda.”