Canada pension fund investment into US detention firm larger than reported

CPPIB holds $6.1m in investments in Geo Group, a firm that runs US detention facilities under Trump’s immigration crackdown

A controversial investment by one of Canada’s biggest pension funds in a company which operates private prisons in the United States is larger than initially thought, recent securities filings have revealed.

The Guardian and Documented reported last month that the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) – which manages $366.6bn in pension funds on behalf of some 20 million Canadian retirees – holds stock in Geo Group.

But the most recent regulatory filings show the CPPIB has added to its holdings in Geo Group by 90,000 shares since June – an increase of nearly 50% – bringing the total investment value to $6.1m. It is not known if the fund still holds the shares; the investment board did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Facilities operated by Geo Group have been used in recent months to detain families in the United States, following Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” crackdown on immigration by the American government.

Meanwhile, the CPPIB decreased its holdings of CoreCivic, another private prison company, by 5,900 shares, valuing the investment at $1.65m at the time of filing.

Read more @The Guardian