Lawmakers made hundreds of stock transactions during pandemic, watchdog finds The nonprofit is calling for laws that would ban lawmakers from making individual stock trades. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/29/congress-stocks-coronavirus-221742
I have been reading up on this. The STOCK Act merely requires that House and Senate members report their trades over a certain value. Let's take a look at the key points of the STOCK Act: As of July, 2012, securities transactions previously reported once a year are now reported after, at most, 45 days. With the annual filings in May, 2012, mortgages on lawmakers' personal residences, which were previously only disclosed if the house produced income, are now reported in all cases. As of September, 2012, reports are made available on the web by the Senate, House, and Office of Government Ethics, including the new mortgage and transaction requirements. Despite all the fanfare about the STOCK Act it effectively did nothing to stop "insider trading" in Congress. It just required more reporting of financial information. Any provisions for stopping insider trading by Congress in the STOCK Act were removed within months by follow-up bills (all signed by Obama). It was completely watered down in 2013 -- actually making easier for Federal employees plus Senators and House members & staff to trade on inside information. Stock Act Change Just Quietly Made It Easier For Top Federal Employees To Inside Trade https://www.huffpost.com/entry/stock-act-change-insider-trading_n_3100115 Who says nothing ever gets done in Washington? Swiftly and without fanfare, Congress and President Obama have made it easier for top federal employees to trade on inside information. On Monday, Obama signed into a law a change in the Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge, or STOCK Act, which was passed in 2012. The change, which was approved unanimously by Congress last week, means that top federal employees, including staffers on Capital Hill and in the White House, will not have to publicly disclose their financial holdings online. That requirement was part of the original STOCK Act, but its implementation had been delayed again and again by Congress. And now it’s dead. (More at above url) Why Congressional Insider Trading Is Legal – and Potentially Profitable https://investmentu.com/why-congressional-insider-trading-legal-profitable/ Originally posted July 22, 2017 Is it illegal for lawmakers to trade stocks on insider info they learn on the job? Analysis: Probably not, and it's a case that would be difficult for prosecutors to make. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/co...e-stocks-insider-info-they-learn-job-n1165156
It was the latest turn since reports surfaced in March that the Justice Department was conducting a probe into Burr's sale of up to $1.72 million in stocks earlier this year. The stocks were sold in early February after senators received closed-door briefings on the national threat posed by the coronavirus, before most Americans were warned about the potential economic fallout of the pandemic. Burr has denied that he used any information he learned in his capacity as a senator to guide his decisions regarding selling his stocks. But the questions around the sales escalated on Wednesday night after the Los Angeles Times reported that the FBI had carried out a warrant to confiscate Burr's cellphone as part of its investigation. Burr and McConnell both said that the North Carolina senator called the GOP leader on Thursday morning to inform McConnell that he had decided to temporarily give up his chairmanship — a decision that McConnell said he agreed with. Burr also addressed the decision during a closed-door GOP lunch on Thursday, telling his colleagues that he decided to step aside "so that this didn’t cause a difficulty on the committee or within the conference." Republicans largely held back from questioning Burr on Thursday, with several saying that he deserved a presumption of innocence pending the outcome of the FBI investigation.
Maybe some more warrants need to be created... NYT Reports Trump WH Economic Team Privately Tipped Off Insiders About Covid Risks in February, Fueling Market Crash https://www.mediaite.com/news/just-...covid-risks-in-february-fueling-market-crash/ The Trump White House’s economic advisers were privately warning conservative insiders and wealthy donors of the uncertainty about the Covid outbreak in late February, even as the president was trying to reassure the public that everything was fine and the virus would soon disappear. According to the New York Times story published late on Wednesday night, this disconnect helped to tip off GOP elites and well-connected traders get an early warning about a possible unprecedented market crash. The report centers on a memo written by a hedge fund consultant, who was present at a three-day meeting at the conservative Hoover Institution. Among the Trump administration speakers at the event who were sounding the alarm was White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow. The consultant’s assessment quickly spread through parts of the investment world. U.S. stocks were already spiraling because of a warning from a federal public health official that the virus was likely to spread, but traders spotted the immediate significance: The president’s aides appeared to be giving wealthy party donors an early warning of a potentially impactful contagion at a time when Mr. Trump was publicly insisting that the threat was nonexistent. Interviews with eight people who either received copies of the memo or were briefed on aspects of it as it spread among investors in New York and elsewhere provide a glimpse of how elite traders had access to information from the administration that helped them gain financial advantage during a chaotic three days when global markets were teetering. As the advanced tip-off of a potential coronavirus pandemic rippled through a cloistered circle of investors, big bets against the market began rolling in. “Short everything,” the Times reports was one trader’s reaction to the shocking news. The news that the Trump White House was telling rich investors and elite donors the truth about the dangers of Covid while peddling a much more optimistic and, ultimately, false face in public mirrors the president’s own intentionally deceptive language about the virus to the American people, which he admitted to in taped conversations with Bob Woodward.
DOA Sinema & Manchin: "We need to reach across the isle and have bipartisan agreement on this. We need to stop the divisive rhetoric"
Burr’s Brother-in-Law Called Stock Broker, One Minute After Getting Off Phone With Senator According to the SEC, Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, then chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had material nonpublic information about coronavirus impact. He and his brother-in-law dumped stock before the market dropped in March 2020. https://www.propublica.org/article/...e-minute-after-getting-off-phone-with-senator