Portrait of Jeff Yass.
Photo: Eddie Maruk
Inside one of the world’s largest select trading firms lies a little-known philanthropic foundation that has quietly donated tens of millions of dollars to influence federal policy, education and law.
The company and foundation are twins of Republican mega-donors Jeff Yasand a small group of allies.
Yass, a poker-playing, libertarian billionaire, is the largest individual donor to federal candidates this election cycle, giving more than $46 million so far, according to the nonpartisan OpenSecrets.
Yas rarely gives interviews and largely avoids public appearances. But his charitable giving provides a rare window into his priorities and goals.
Susquehanna International Group, co-founded by the Susquehanna Foundation and Yass Trading Co., operates out of the same suburban office building in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., according to tax records.
The foundation is run by Yass and other senior Susquehanna executives, according to documents filed through 2022.
The Susquehanna Foundation is one of two foundations funded and directed by Yass and his closest friends.
Another foundation is even less well known: the Claws Foundation. Like Susquehanna, Claws is a one-person charity: Arthur Dantchik, co-founder of Susquehanna International Group and Yass, is the only listed donor to the Claws Foundation.
Dancik has donated more than $150 million to the organization since 2017, according to records. The organization’s documents are stored at Sterling Foundation Management in Virginia, more than 150 miles from Susquehanna International Airport.
Yass and Dancic declined to comment through spokespersons.
Over the past decade, Susquehanna and the PAWS Foundation have been seeded entirely by donations from Yass, his wife and other allies with ties to Susquehanna.
The two foundations have collectively donated more than $25 million to libertarian-minded nonprofits since 2016, according to more than a dozen tax records reviewed by CNBC.
One of the major recipients is the Cato Institute, a Washington think tank that promotes liberal ideals. Money from the foundation run by Yass also went to the Institute for Justice, a tax-exempt legal group that has been filing lawsuits in U.S. courts. Supreme Court.
Another grantee is the Atlas Network, an organization dedicated to promoting “free market” principles.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute has raised funding from the Claws Foundation.Competitive Enterprise Institute opposes government regulations Finance, energy and technology industries, etc.
Experts who review foundation donations for CNBC explained that many donations go to groups that promote policies that could benefit Yass, his businesses and those close to him.
” Brendan Fisher of the watchdog agency Records said in an email.
For example, the Susquehanna Foundation received more than $250 million from Susquehanna Growth Equity Fund III in 2020, according to records.
The fund is a private equity investment vehicle controlled by Susquehanna International Group, according to Pitchbook.
Yass is also reportedly the only known contributor to the political action committee Moderate PAC, which is trying to unseat progressive Democratic Rep. Summer Lee in this year’s primary. Politico.
Lee’s Democratic opponents try to distance themselves Herself Of the money the PAC received from Yass, it said at a recent meeting debate: “I condemn Donald Trump. I condemn Jeffrey Yass.”
work together
According to Forbes, Yass has a net worth of $27 billion. Dancik’s net worth is estimated at $7 billion.
Yass and Dantchik have been friends for more than 50 years, since they lived together at SUNY Binghamton in the late 1970s. They later moved to Las Vegas and became professional gamblers before co-founding Susquehanna in the 1980s.
Dancik and Yass are both listed as directors of the Claws Foundation. Through the end of 2022, they will also serve as president and vice president, respectively, of the Susquehanna Foundation.
As Yas rose to the top of the list of America’s largest donors, he met with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in March.
The meeting took place during a donor retreat for the Club for Growth, a conservative group that plans to support Trump over President Joe Biden through its political action committee in the coming months.
Yass donated more than $15 million to Club for Growth’s super PAC months before it announced its support for Trump.
A sign outside Susquehanna International Group’s headquarters in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., on January 3, 2016.
Christopher Tripral | Alami
But a spokesman for Yass later told the New York Times that Yass did not plan to donate to Trump’s campaign.
Some of the organizations that receive funding from Yas-Dancik lead nonprofits in aggressive campaigns to end or limit government regulations and change the operations of federal agencies.
Anna Massoglia, investigations manager at OpenSecrets, said if the groups’ resistance to the policy proposals goes through, it could affect Yass and Susquehanna, including their investment in TikTok parent company ByteDance.
Dancik is It is said On-bit tuple hopping board. Susquehanna International Group holds a 15% stake in ByteDance.
Masoglia said: “These donations represent targeted investments in organizations that promote anti-regulation and promote free market policies, and at a time when Asia faces so much risk if the U.S. government cracks down on investment in companies like TikTok, This could benefit Yas.”
The House of Representatives passed a bill in March that, if signed into law, would allow Chinese company ByteDance to divest TikTok in about six months, otherwise the social media app will no longer be available for download in the United States.
The Cato Institute has received about $6.8 million from the Susquehanna and Claws foundations since 2016, according to tax records.
Nearly half of that came from a $3 million donation from the Susquehanna Foundation in 2022, the same year Yass was named vice chairman of Cato’s board of directors.
Yas no longer holds a position or even a seat on Cato’s board of directors. A spokesman for Cato did not respond to CNBC’s questions about why Yass no longer serves as a trustee.
Cato’s policy goals dovetailed with Yas’s political and economic interests.
Just this year, Cato officials have taken a stance on at least two key issues affecting Yass and his company.
On March 12, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington, the United States, TikTok creators gathered in front of a press conference to express their opposition to the “Protecting Americans from Applications Controlled by Foreign Adversaries Act”, which is pending in the House of Representatives against TikTok. Fight against legislation.
Craig Hudson | Reuters
“Given that 170 million Americans use TikTok, or more than half of all Americans, the specter of banning the popular app could spark a backlash if given time to develop,” Cato wrote in a post “They’re right to be worried.” Earlier this spring…
“This bill raises serious concerns about speech and future government interference in social media,” read a separate Cato article published around the time of the House vote.
The Club for Growth also opposes banning TikTok.
Yass and his companies would also benefit from restrictions on the SEC’s rule-making power. In March, Cato’s Jennifer Schulp testified before the House Financial Services Committee to advocate for SEC reform.
Beyond TikTok
It’s not just groups opposing the TikTok ban that have received support from the Yas Operations Foundation.
“This kind of spending by the Yass Foundation easily makes him one of the largest donors to conservative causes and think tanks, with a clear libertarian bent,” said Robert Maguire, director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics.
The foundation has invested millions of dollars in groups to support Yass and his wife’s top priority: “school choice.”
Funded primarily by libertarian- and conservative-leaning donors, such as the wealthy DeVos family. want parents Get taxpayer funds to help pay for charter or private school tuition.
Since 2016, foundations led by Yass have also donated a total of more than $5 million to the nonprofit legal group the Institute for Justice.
Justice Institute Advocacy Choose a school in court cases.
It also opposes major campaign finance reforms, such as rules requiring tax-exempt charities to disclose the names of donors.
One post read: “Forcing people to disclose even the most trivial political activities and posting that information on a publicly accessible database exposes virtually all political donors to neighbors, bosses, customers, store employees, and even family members. of retaliation and coercion.” From the institute’s “Don’t Make Laws” website, archived by the Wayback Machine.
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