‘The dark side of the moon’: a theoretical framework of complicity applied to the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global

Abstract

This article analyses the risks associated with the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global's (NGPFG) complicity in the violation of foreign citizens and their human rights as carried out by the fund's numerous portfolio companies. The NGPFG is a Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF). In contrast to the SWF's in the Middle East, the NGPFG is the only SWF that is located in a country with high democratic standards. The fund is one of the largest institutional investors on the global financial scene. As of October 2012, the fund possessed assets of 3755 trillion NOK (652 billion US$), invested only overseas in 7354 companies. Of this amount, 58.7% is invested in private limited companies, 41% in bond-issuing companies and 0.3% in real estate. On the basis of current research on shareholders' complicity, this article develops a theoretical framework on investor complicity. The article applies this theoretical framework of complicity to several empirical phenomena characterizing the macro-, meso- and micro-level of the NGPFG portfolio.

Keywords:

• theoretical framework
• complicity
• Norwegian oil fund