Open the Books Links Gov. Gavin Newsom and Silicon Valley Bank

And Jennifer Newsom’s ‘very close ties to the bank’

Gov. Gavin Newsom. (Photo: Kevin Sanders for California Globe)

Following the Friday Silicon Valley Bank closure, Sunday morning the Globe reported an interesting tie between Silicon Valley Bank and California’s First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom – John China, SVB Executive of Capital sits on the board of Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s California Partners Project.

“California Partners Project champions gender equity across the state and ensures our state’s media and technology industries are a force for good in the lives of all children,” the website says.

We detailed calls for Gov. Gavin Newsom to be completely transparent, and especially Ric Grenell’s important questions on California’s First Lady’s relationship to the SVB leadership: “Did she get involved at all? What did they say to her in the lead up to the collapse?”

By Monday, Open the Books, which imposes transparency on those who refuse, “using forensic auditing and open records,” found even deeper ties between Silicon Valley Bank and the Newsom’s: Silicon Valley Bank gave $100,000 “Behested” gift to the Newsom’s nonprofit.

Here are the details Open the Books found of Jennifer Newsom’s “very close ties to the bank:”

In 2021, SVB gave $100,000 in corporate gifts to the Newsom nonprofit. These gifts are so intertwined with the Newsom’s that they are listed as a matter of California ethics law on a state government website, California Fair Political Practices Commission.

All nonprofit donors are listed on the state website if they are “behested” gifts. The term “behested” means “at the request, suggestion, or solicitation of, or made in cooperation, consultation, coordination or concert with the public official.”

In this case, it’s the governor who behested the Silicon Valley Bank $100,000 gift. It’s the governor who requested, suggested, solicitated or cooperated, coordinated or acted in concert to procure the gift. However, the mandatory-state-disclosed conflict-of-interest listing also names his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom. That’s because, Mrs. Newsom is also a public official, the first ever “First Partner.”

Siebel Newsom’s public duties including running the Office of First Partner which was created by the governor shortly after inauguration. Since 2019, the governor allocated nine staffers and nearly $5 million in taxpayer funds for his wife’s office.

But Wait! There’s More!

Silicon Valley Bank and its executives played a major role in the Newsom nonprofit, the California Partners Project, since its founding. The President of Silicon Valley Capital – the investment banking arm of the bank – is John China. Mr. China is a 27-year SVB veteran. He’s also a founding board member of the Newsom nonprofit. Even today, China is still listed as a director on the nonprofit’s website.

The California Partners Project’s first board chair, Elizabeth Gore, was also connected to SVB. Her company, Hello Alice, which connects entrepreneurs to resources to grow their companies, received funding from SVB.

John China serves on the board of Hello Alice.

According to China’s LinkedIn profile, SVB Capital managed $5.5 billion in capital funds. China and his group was a primary funder to the tech startups that we are hearing about in the news.

As Open the Books notes, “The California Partners Project was founded to push Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s ‘First Partner’ public policy agenda. As a founding member, the Silicon Valley Bank played a major role. Their executive, John China was on the founding board and the bank gave a $100,000 gift.”

Notably, Ann O’Leary is also on the California Partners Project board. O’Leary was Governor Newsom’s Chief of Staff and co-chair of the Governor’s Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery.

Open the Books concludes “Further investigations should be conducted into how SVB might have leveraged its funding and influence on behalf of the Newsom administration, and if those decisions put its financial security at risk.”

Indeed.

Please take the time to read the Open the Books entire investigation. There’s a lot more here than meets the eye – and as certain things unravel, others are starting to add up.