Does BlackRock own Dominion Voting Systems? No, that's not true: A BlackRock spokesperson told Lead Stories the asset management/investment company owns part of Dominion Resources Inc., a completely different company, in the energy sector. The similarly-named voting software and ballot equipment company, Dominion Voting Systems, is owned by Staple Street Capital and its employees. Dominion Voting Systems sued Fox News for defamation caused by Fox's false on-air claims that Dominion technology was used to steal votes in the 2020 presidential election. Fox in April 2023 agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million to settle the defamation suit.
The claim about BlackRock's ownership of the voting company was made in an April 24, 2023 tweet (archived here) on the @robertbaudot account. It opened: "Blackrock owns 59.M shares of Dominion" and continued:
Blackrock owns 45.7M shares of Fox.
Blackrock sued itself and fired TuckerCarlson as part of that lawsuit.FIGURED IT OUT YET?
This is what the post looked like on Twitter at the time of writing:
(Source: Twitter screenshot taken on Wed Apr 26 17:56:50 2023 UTC)
This fact check will focus on the claim that BlackRock "owns 59.M shares of Dominion." The implication in this tweet is that "Dominion" is the voting systems company, which just reached a $787.5 million settlement with Fox. in their defamation lawsuit against Fox News..
In a statement emailed to Lead Stories on April 25, 2023, a spokesperson for Dominion denied that the company is owned by BlackRock:
This is false - Dominion is not owned by BlackRock--Dominion is owned by Staple Street Capital and its employees.
Lead Stories reached out to BlackRock, and spokesman Christopher Berger responded by email on April 26, 2023, saying:
Thanks for reaching out. We just posted about this on twitter. Full text below."BlackRock has no ownership stake in Dominion Voting Systems, and we are not involved in the hiring and firing of employees at public companies in which our clients are invested. Dominion Voting Systems is owned by a private equity firm that is not affiliated with BlackRock."
BlackRock has no ownership stake in Dominion Voting Systems, and we are not involved in the hiring and firing of employees at public companies in which our clients are invested. Dominion Voting Systems is owned by a private equity firm that is not affiliated with BlackRock.
The investment firm BlackRock does own a company called Dominion Resources Inc. Fintel, a market data company includes the following in its notes:
BlackRock Inc. ownership in D / Dominion Resources, Inc.
2023-01-31 - BlackRock Inc. has filed an SC 13G/A form with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosing ownership of 59,148,081 shares of Dominion Resources, Inc. (US:D). This represents 7.1 percent ownership of the company. In their previous filing dated 2022-02-01 , BlackRock Inc. had reported owning 55,640,019 shares, indicating an increase of 6.30 percent.
Dominion Resources, Inc. is an energy company, not a voting systems company.
A February 1, 2023, article on Nasdaq.com noted BlackRock had increased its shares of Fox Corporation:
Fintel reports that BlackRock has filed a 13G/A form with the SEC, disclosing ownership of 45.74MM shares of Fox Corporation, Class A (FOXA). This represents 15.1% of the company.
Lead Stories has reached out to BlackRock for comment and will update the story when a response is received.
Past Lead Stories reporting on the ownership of Dominion Voting Systems can be found in this debunk of a previous conspiracy theory, which claimed "China" owned the company, and this debunk of a claim that Joe Biden's brother-in-law owned part of the company, and this debunk of pillow millionaire Mike Lindell's "documentary" in which Col. Phil Waldron (ret.) claims Dominion machines were used to hack the U.S. Election. Dominion has sued Lindell for $1.3 billion in a defamation suit similar to its suit against Fox.
