(NewsGlobal.com)- Everyone has their flaws and little idiosyncrasies that they just cannot help. For Joe Biden, it’s sniffing little kids; for Democratic Socialist squad member Sandy Cortez, it’s running her mouth; for Nancy Pelosi, it’s drinking; and for Pelosi’s husband, it’s reeling in the money as he benefits from insider trading.
Bipartisan legislation called the “Banning Insider Trading in Congress Act” is introduced in Congress after there was public scrutiny around politicians’ Wall Street profit. The legislation brought together even Cortez and Republican Senator Josh Hawley, who both think it to be unthinkable that politicians, who have access to a great deal of information and regulatory control, could trade stocks and make tens of millions of dollars in the course of their term—much like how Nancy Pelosi and her husband did it.
“Year after year, politicians somehow manage to outperform the market, buying and selling millions in stocks of companies they’re supposed to be regulating,” said Hawley. “Here’s something we can do: ban all members of Congress from trading stocks and force those who do to pay their proceeds back to the American people.”
But Nancy Pelosi wasn’t too hot on this idea—obviously. She initially commented that this was a free market and anyone should be able to participate in trading stocks. But after receiving some blowback from other Democrats, Pelosi capitulated a bit, now saying that if they wanted to ban trading for Congress members then she would be okay with it.
As the Hill reports, her husband Paul is like the real life Gordon Gekko, the character from the 1987 Oliver Stone classic “Wall Street.” Gekko once declared in the film that “The most valuable commodity I know is information.”
That’s exactly the credence Paul Pelosi lives by after a series of questionable trades shows just how powerful access to information can be. In March 2021, Paul exercised Microsoft options totaling 25,000 shares worth more than $5 million. After disclosing a near $22 billion deal, the company made with the U.S. Army, the stock price rose and Pelosi capitalized.
In another instance, Paul bought up to $5 million in options from Nvidia, a leading semiconductor company. “The purchase, first reported by The Daily Caller, comes as Congress is set to vote on legislation later this month that would result in $52 billion in subsidies allocated to elevate the chip-production industry as it faces increased competition from China,” the Hill wrote, adding that the vote would also provide tax credits for production.
Last month, he exercised 200 Nvida options, profiting from a 9% gain as the stock increased the following week. Small gains like this matter when millions of dollars are at stake.
Paul has also substantially outperformed the S&P500 in 2020 and reportedly profited “$30 million from trades involving Big Tech companies the House speaker is responsible for regulating.”
