Vegan ETF Scam

Beyond Investing’s US Vegan Climate ETF (VEGN) is *not* an ethical option. Do not give them your money.

Update 2025-03-24: Since I contacted Beyond Investing asking them to divest from Tesla and United Health, their holdings of Tesla increased from 3.29% to 3.85%

Update 2025-03-24: After publishing, I got a response from Debra Bouton stating “We are actively monitoring the situation and will make a decision at our next rebalance, in June 2025”. Please contact them to let them know that waiting 3 months to begin discussing how to respond to popular protest’s demands to divest from unethical companies is not acceptable.

Ethical investing. Is it possible?

video of Elon Musk giving a nazi salute in front of a presidential podium

An unelected plutocrat gives a nazi salute on 2025-01-20

I got my first job with company-matching 401(k) as a teenager. The advice on “personal finance” forums were clear:

max-out your yearly (Roth) IRA and 401(k) matches every year,
throw it all into some vanguard/fidelity/evil-corp’s managed hedge/index/etf-fund, and
just forget about it for 30 years until you retire.

What these “personal finance” forums don’t tell you is that they’re profiting from murdering babies.

At some point I realized these companies had taken my retirement money and used it to fund companies profiting off of fossil fuel extraction or factory farms causing the climate catastrophe, weapons used to commit war crimes, pharmaceutical companies profiting off of opiate addiction, and tech companies whose negligence lead to genocide.

So I sold-off all my evil-corp-controlled retirement funds and tried to reinvest them into various SRIs (Socially Responsible Investing). One of the investments that quickly popped-up on my radar was Beyond Investing’s US Vegan Climate ETF (VEGN).

US Vegan Climate ETF (VEGN)

Unfortunately, VEGN is not a Socially Responsible Investment.

As others have pointed-out, VEGN doesn’t even have much holdings in vegan companies. Worse, the holdings they *do* have include several unethical companies, including (at the time of writing):

Nazi-aligned Tesla
Mass Murdering United Health

Screenshot of the US Vegan Climate ETF website, with highlight showing holdings of United Health and Tesla

VEGN’s unethical holdings include Tesla and United Health stock (Mar 2025)

Earlier this year, in response to the US government getting taken-over by unelected plutocrat Elon Musk — who began drastic austerity measures slashing critical social programs and regulatory agencies, activists organized #TeslaTakedown movement, which quickly spread internationally.

TeslaTakedown.com

Map of the world showing blue pin drops throughout the US, Canada, and Northern Europe

#TeslaTakedown protests across the world

Beyond Investing’s VEGN ETF has (at the time of writing) a $112,760,000 in net assets and a holding of Tesla and United Health at 3.85% and 3.20%, respectfully. That means:

VEGN holds 4.3 million USD of Tesla and
VEGN holds 3.6 million USD of United Health

Contact Beyond Investing

If you’d like to see the world’s largest Vegan ETF divest from Tesla and United Health, you can contact them over phone or email

info@beyondinvesting.com

+ 44 207 157 9706

Here’s a sample letter

To whom it may concern:

Please divest from Tesla and United Health.

I am a holder of the VEGN ETF. I added VEGN to my portfolio of SRIs, but I’ve been disappointed to discover that you have holdings of very socially irresponsible companies, including Tesla and United Health.

In alignment with the #TeslaTakedown movement, I’m divesting from all funds that profit from Tesla holdings. If you don’t sell Tesla stock, I’ll be forced to sell my VEGN holdings — and urge others to do the same.

Please sell all holdings of Tesla and United Health.

Thank you