ADVERTISEMENT

NYC Comptroller Asks SEC to Investigate Tyson’s Virus Response

NYC Comptroller Asks SEC to Investigate Tyson’s Virus Response

New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate Tyson Foods Inc. for its “slow and minimal pandemic response” that resulted in hospitalizations and deaths among the company’s workforce.

“Tyson is flagrantly misrepresenting its poor pandemic response,” Stringer said Tuesday in a statement on the comptroller’s website. “There is human cost to Tyson’s failures -– preventable deaths, hospitalizations and sick workers. These failures have material impacts on its business operations that carry serious risks for shareholders.”

The biggest U.S. meat company made misleading disclosures about its worker health and safety protections to investors including the New York City Retirement Systems, Stringer said in a separate Dec. 15 letter to the SEC, noting his role as investment adviser, custodian and trustee of the city’s five pension funds. The retirement plans collectively manage $229 billion in assets and are “substantial long-term Tyson shareholders,” the letter said.

A Tyson spokesperson didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.