Newsom issued an official statement in support of the Biden administration’s decision to “protect the American economy” in the SVB case, but he did not mention his own interest in the situation, new findings from the Intercept have detailed.
The outlet determined that “at least three” entities with ties to Newsom, such as CADE, Odette, and PlumpJack, are listed as SVB clients on the bank’s website. It was also reported that the California governor had his personal accounts at SVB for years.
“Governor Newsom’s business and financial holdings are held and managed by a blind trust, as they have been since he was first elected governor in 2018,” Newsom’s spokesperson Nathan Click told the outlet in an emailed statement.
Beyond that, the report noted Newsom's wife Jennifer Siebel had professional ties to the collapsed bank, which gave $100,000 to her charity, the California Partners Project, in 2021. SVB Capital President John China is a founding member of the California Partners Project’s board of directors.
However, it remains unclear whether Newsom's personal accounts remained active at the bank's collapse, or if the California governor received any benefit from the Biden White House's rescue package.
US media has reported Newsom played a key role in ensuring the Biden administration moved forward with a bailout plan, with the governor having spoken to US President Joe Biden on Saturday regarding the impact the bank collapse would have on the Golden State.
At the time, Newsom made no mention of his own ties to the bank.
California regulators shut down SVB on Friday, marking the second largest bank collapse since the 2008 financial crisis. The bank, which was popular among tech firms, was closed after a run on deposits.
SVB provided financing for almost half of US venture-backed technology and health care companies. At the end of 2022, the bank said it had $151.5 billion in uninsured deposits, $137.6 billion of which was held by US depositors. Its total assets were $209 billion as of the end of 2022.