It's far past time for businesses to fight back against outrageous shareholder activism, and Chevron is taking the lead by filing criminal charges against one such so-called shareholder, who only acquired shares so she would rant against the company at a shareholder meeting.
The woman arrested and charged was Antonia Juhasz who attacked the environmental record of Chevron, but further disrupted the meeting by engaging in chanting against them as well. She could get up to six months in jail.
This has rightly caused a lot of buzz and negative feedback from those who promote such things, as it raises the stakes in the game by bringing negative sanctions against these ridiculous people and their alleged causes.
By Chevron taking these steps and gauging the response, they've done the right thing. Now they need to hold to their guns and let the legal process play out, and hopefully this nut will spend some time in jail. Who knows, maybe she'll even sue those who encouraged her to do what she did.
Some attempt to say this is good for business to have fake shareholders buy up a few shares only for the purpose of ranting, as if this is going to change a business or cause them to respond to their childish and outrageous demands.
Allowing people to throw tantrums and engage in anti-social behavior so they can garner attention isn't something businesses should have to put up with, and hopefully more of them will press charges as Chevron has to see if these nuts are willing to pay the price.
To let them run loose without consequences is a big mistake, and only encourages them to go further with their attempts to sabotage meetings and disrupt business in general.
This is a good first step, and other businesses need to follow in the footsteps of Chevron, as it'll cut back on most of the tactics and out-of-control behavior these types of eco-terrorists engage in.
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