Posted on 03/07/2007 7:09:33 AM PST by presidio9
Barack Obama's presidential campaign Wednesday defended two investments he made right after his election to the Senate, saying he was unaware of the stock purchases at the time and did nothing to directly aid either company in its business before the federal government.
The two companies — AVI Biopharma and Skyterra Communications — were backed by some top donors to Obama's political committees.
Obama purchased $5,000 in shares for AVI, which was developing a drug to treat avian flu. Two weeks after buying the stock, Obama pushed for more federal funding to fight the disease, but company officials said they never talked to Obama about his work in the area.
The Illinois senator had more than $50,000 in shares of Skyterra, a company that had just received federal permission to create a nationwide wireless network that combined satellite and land-based communications systems.
Among the company's top investors were donors who raised more than $150,000 for Obama's political committees, the New York Times reported Wednesday. The stock holdings were first examined Monday by the financial Web site, Thestreet.com.
The reports found no evidence that any of his actions ended up benefiting either company during the roughly eight months he owned the stocks. The Obama campaign trumpeted that finding at the top of a statement issued Wednesday morning.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton said the Democrat, who has been campaigning on his push for congressional ethics reform, did not know that his broker at USB bought the stocks under a blind trust that was being set up at the time.
Burton said Obama ended the blind trust after he got a stockholder letter in the mail. Obama could not remember whether the mail was from AVI, Skyterra or another company he was invested in, Burton said, but he "realized he didn't have the level of blindness he expected" and sold the stocks in November 2005.
He lost about $15,000 on Skyterra and earned a profit of about $2,000 on AVI.
"Obama owned stock in two companies which he did nothing to help — an investment that lost him $13,000," Burton said in a statement Wednesday. "It's apparent that his dealings were completely above board and his decisions were proactively made in the interest of avoiding the potential for conflict."
Senate ethics rules do not prohibit lawmakers from owning stocks in companies that do business with the federal government.
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bullshi*!
Now where have I heard something like that before... Sounds awfully familiar...
Oh, now I remember - Whitewater was simply a land deal that lost money for the Clintons and their partners.
This whole thing has, in the words of Liberals, the appearance of impropriety.
Oh, wait a minute, no it doesn't. We're talking about a Democrat.
Nothing to see here...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Cheney completely divests himself of all interests in Haliburton prior to becoming a candidate for office, but every action he or the government takes is assumed buy the MSM to be a payoff to his "buddies." Obama has a genuine conflict of interest here. This is the reason government officials are supposed to place all investments into a blind trust. Anyone want to take bets as to whether the MSM actually pursues this story?
Typical democrat crook.
But, now that it's out in the open, we need to find out the TRUE source for this story.
Is this Hillary at work or just the results of coincidental research by a naive, soon to be re-educated, misguided MSM reporter???
Soros bought $67mm worth of Haliburton last week. Nothing to see here...
"Hello," lied the politician.
Stealing is illegal:
The government hates competition.
Funny democrats "never make money" in stocks and therefore it doesnt influence there decisions hmmmmmm
For contrast
>>Frist Stock Sale Raises Questions on Timing
By R. Jeffrey Smith and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, September 22, 2005; Page A10
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has maintained for years that his stock holdings in the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain posed no conflict of interest for a policymaker deeply involved in health care matters. He even received two rulings in the 1990s from the Senate ethics committee that blessed the holding of the stock in blind trusts.<<
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/21/AR2005092102065.html
And this
>>Common Cause Insists the Senate Ethics Committee Launch an Investigation of Senator Bill Frist's Controversial Stock Sales
September 27, 2005
Dear Chairman Voinovich and Vice Chairman Johnson:
Common Cause calls on the Senate Ethics Committee to initiate an investigation to determine whether Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) violated Senate ethics rules by directing trustees to sell his HCA Inc. stock held in a blind trust. <<
The hypocrisy is astounding.
When Pres. Bush was in private life, he sold his stock in some company, Harkin I believe, to buy the Rangers. The libs tried to make a stink of this when GW ran for Pres.
They tried to claim insider info or some such. Failing to mention that about a year later the stock doubled.
Now we have a POLITICIAN doing something improper and they say "nothing to see here, move along." Spit.
The NYT has begun the process of borking Osama into the VP spot.
I think I just had a Kennedy moment. Good thing I wasn't driving.
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