Congress Quickly And Quietly Rolls Back Insider Trading Rules For Itself (exempted from insider-trading laws)
TechDirt.com ^ | Tue, Apr 16th 2013 11:11am | Mike Masnick / FR Posted on 3/21/2020 by E. Pluribus Unum
In November of 2011, the TV show 60 Minutes did a big expose on insider trading within Congress. While everyone else is subject to basic insider trading rules, it turned out that members of Congress were exempt from the rules.
And, as you would imagine, many in Congress have access to market-moving, non-public information. And they made use of it. To make lots and lots of money.
Of course, after that report came out and got lots of attention, Congress had to act, and within months they had passed the STOCK Act with overwhelming support in Congress to make insider trading laws that apply to everyone else finally apply to Congress and Congressional staffers as well. As that link notes:
The lopsided votes showed lawmakers desperate to regain public trust in an election year, when the public approval rating of Congress has sunk below 15 percent.
Of course, here we are in 2013 and, lo and behold, it is no longer an election year. And apparently some of the details of the ban on insider trading were beginning to chafe Congressional staffers, who found it hard to pad their income with some friendly trades on insider knowledge.
So... with very little fanfare, Congress quietly rolled back a big part of the law late last week. Specifically the part that required staffers to post disclosures about their financial transactions, so that the public could make sure there was no insider trading going on.
Congress tried to cover up this fairly significant change because they, themselves, claimed that it would pose a "national risk" to have this information public. A national risk to their bank accounts. (Excerpt) Read more at techdirt.com ...
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Nancy Pelosi's Husband Snared In SunEdison Stock Scandal
The Daily Bail ^ | 04-10-2019 / FR Posted on 4/10/2019, 10:02:56 PM by Kevin in California
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s husband bought up to a quarter million dollars of stock in SunEdison, a now financially troubled green energy company just weeks before it announced a major 2014 acquisition that sent its stock price soaring. SunE's 2014 purchase of wind energy company First Wind “further bolstered the reputation of the company,” wrote one market-watcher at the time. “Perhaps unsurprisingly, SunEdison’s stock soared 29% on news of this acquisition alone.”
Pelosi has a well-earned reputation for shady stock purchases herself, getting shares in lucrative IPOs and
trading on inside information gleaned through Congressional meetings. Martha Stewart jailed 5 months for similar insider trading.
What happens when a Democratic speaker of the House — second in line to the presidency, according to the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 — is suddenly thrust into the Oval Office, succeeding a Republican president and vice president who resign, embroiled in scandal? Such a scenario is attracting attention — #PresidentPelosi was trending on social media this morning. When I woke up with this news I couldn’t believe my eyes, but after a while, I realized that it’s impossible for a politician with a record like Nancy to get such an important position. This is just another distraction of the real problems the Democrats have.
Some things the Dems didn’t want to come out to the public, that’s why they hate President Trump.
Prominent Democrat’s child was implicated in a different form of corporate corruption, in 2014, and was later tied to Ukraine, in 2017. That was the son of the House Minority Leader and current Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.