REPORT: Nikki Fried Likely Has Money in Russia, Has Not Acknowledged
March 21, 2022 Updated 9:05 A.M. ET
TALLAHASSEE (FCV) – According to a June 20, 2018 financial disclosure from Agriculture Commissioner and Democrat candidate for governor Nikki Fried, money in one of her accounts likely has money invested in the Russian economy.
The financial disclosure lists Fried’s “full and public disclosure of financial interests” on page 3, with the listed date as 2017. Of note, as of 2017, Fried had $51,212.00 invested in the Fidelity Freedom 2045 Fund, a mutual fund managed by Fidelity.
The Fund lists its various asset allocations, with two that are entitled the Fidelity Series Emerging Markets Fund and the Fidelity Series Emerging Markets Opportunities Fund, which have 3.82% and 5.85% of their respective assets invested in Russia as of June 31, 2022.
It is unclear how much money Fried has in the account at the time of reporting, around 5 years later. No financial disclosure amendment appearing on Fried’s campaign documents shows that she is no longer invested in Fidelity’s Freedom 2045 Fund.
According to Fidelity, the fund has had an average annual return over the past 5 years of +11.17%, meaning Fried would have thousands more dollars in the account.
FCV reached out to Fried’s campaign and has not received a response.
Fidelity has not said if it has entirely withdrawn all money from Russia. Earlier this month, Fidelity said that they have halted new investment, and that they would try to address their “existing exposure.”
While the proportion of invested money in Russia is small compared to other investments by Fidelity and, by extension, Fried, the Democrat candidate for governor has repeatedly publicly attacked Governor Ron DeSantis for not unilaterally divesting all of Florida’s dollars from Russia.
On March 18, Fried said that she “would have a plan in place to get out of Russia. Period.”
However, there are no public calls or acknowledgements of her own investments in Russia, nor did she call for Fidelity to take any action regarding her existing accounts reported in a financial disclosure that have money in Russia.
