Published by Gant Daily.
Linda Young – Fourth Estate Cooperative Writer

Washington, D.C., United States (4E) – JP Morgan saw its shares fall in trading over a risky investment strategy that has so far cost the bank $2 billion, but its continued association with PetroChina could cause more trouble.

Stockholders will vote on a shareholder proposal that JP Morgan divest its portfolio of PetroChina stock.

Criticism of Chinese oil giant PetroChina (PTR) stems from its support of genocidal government in Sudan. PetroChina is the largest oil company in China and among the largest in the world. It is the publicly traded arm of state-owned oil and gas firm China National Petroleum Company. The communist government owns CNPC and dictates its policies.

Many other institutions long ago divested their portfolios of PetroChina stock, including Fidelity and Harvard University.

JP Morgan (JPM, Fortune 500) is PetroChina’s largest U.S.-based shareholder. The bank owns almost 1.3 billion Hong Kong-listed shares of PetroChina worth nearly $1.8 billion.

Shareholders favoring getting rid of the PetroChina stock call it a human rights issue.

The citizen-led nonprofit Investors Against Genocide point out that the U.S. government has economic sanctions on Sudan and that investing in a company that supports the Sudanese government undermines the spirit of those sanctions.

Most of the PetroChina holdings are tied to the bank’s wealth management business. Moreover, the bank says that while it is sensitive to human rights issues that it holds shares of PetroChina at the direction of its customers.