Reporter’s death prompts aldermen to target businesses with ties to Saudi Arabia

Sneed exclusive . . .

Sneed has learned a cadre of aldermen are proposing an ordinance to cut ties with Chicago businesses linked to Saudi Arabia.

“We don’t do business with rogue governments,” said City Council Finance Chairman Edward Burke (14th) in reaction to the alleged murder and gruesome dismemberment of Saudi journalist and Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on Oct. 2.

Khashoggi, who is from Saudi Arabia but lived in the D.C. suburbs, had visited the consulate to collect documents for his upcoming wedding to a Turkish woman.

“If the United States is not going to impose sanctions, the city of Chicago should proceed immediately to do what it can to demonstrate its condemnation of the murder of Mr. Khashoggi, who was reportedly tortured, beheaded and had his fingers chopped off,” said Burke, who plans to file the ordinance proposal Monday.

“To just passively stand still on the sidelines in the wake of the brutal murder and dismemberment of this journalist is simply not acceptable,” added Burke, who tells Sneed he will be joined in this action by Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th), Brendan Reilly (42th), Brian Hopkins (2nd) and Ald. Patrick O’Connor (40th).

Burke tells Sneed the legislation would make financial institutions and companies ineligible to do business with Chicago if they engage in business with Saudi Arabia.

“Chicago should act decisively to express its condemnation,” said Burke. “We hope state and municipal governments nationwide will do the same.”

Sneed is told the prohibition would apply to a range of business dealings and transactions, including municipal deposits, loans, bonds and investments.

• The upshot: After passage and publication of the ordinance, every company or financial institution that does business with the city or seeking to do business with the city would have to file an affidavit with the city that would reveal business ties with the Saudis.

“If they do, they would have one year to divest or cut ties with their Saudi Arabian partners,” said Burke.

• The buckshot: “If they lie on the affidavit or refuse to disclose their Saudi business dealings, that could constitute an offense which could be penalized on a daily basis anywhere from $500 to $1,000 day,” he added.

Burke cited precedent for the introduction of the ordinance including:

• Introduction of an ordinance earlier in 2018 by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Burke that would make financial institutions ineligible to do business with the city unless their business customers adopt restrictions on the sale of firearms, called a “Safe Guns Policy”.

It has not passed yet.

• The MacBride Ordinance, passed in 1993, imposed a bid penalty on companies seeking city contracts that failed to abide by the MacBride Principles, which were intended to promote the fair and equal treatment of minorities in Northern Ireland.

• The Anti-Apartheid Ordinance which was passed in 1990 to demonstrate the city’s condemnation of South Africa’s racial segregation policies. The ordinance imposed a financial penalty on companies seeking to do business with Chicago government that maintained business ties with South Africa.

• The Slavery Disclosure Ordinance adopted by the City Council in 2002 requires companies entering into a city contract to file an affidavit disclosing the history and nature of any part of their business that was linked to slavery.

• An ordinance introduced in 1997 proposing Chicago cut ties with banks that do business with the Swiss government after Holocaust survivors stated that Swiss banks failed to relinquish money and valuables that belonged to them. “It passed out of committee, but in view of the national outrage, Swiss banks agreed to cooperate in the reparation process,” Burke said.

• The Sweatshop Free Procurement Ordinance adopted in 2014 that required contractors to file an affidavit verifying that neither they nor their subcontractors used supply chains that used sweatshop labor.