After multiple incidents in the last year in which members of Congress and their family members have been accused of profiting from stock trades using nonpublic information collected in the course of their duties, stock trading has been a topic of public debate.
Members of Congress are required by law to file reports in case they or their spouses sell or buy stocks worth more than $1,000 within 45 days. The report has to include a rough estimate of the transaction’s worth.
Nancy Pelosi’s spouse appears to be benefiting from the continued climb in share prices of some of America’s largest corporations.
He purchased call options that gave him the right to buy shares in Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google. He also bought call options of GOOG, Micron Technology, Salesforce.com, and Walt Disney Corp. at prices that were up to 45 percent below their closing trading levels on the day when the transactions were made.
The value of the stocks is sure to have further increased recently as the market was buoyed by a Santa Claus rally.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi doesn’t think that lawmakers or their family members should be barred from buying call options, stating that the market should be a free place where everyone could make a purchase.
Pelosi has consistently maintained that she has no info or prior knowledge of her spouse’s trading actions and that she does not own any shares.
Since the start of the pandemic, many investigations have been started due to suspiciously timed stocks trades by lawmakers. The events sparked a lot of controversies.
According to Pelosi’s most recent financial report, her husband owns millions of dollars in assets. This includes Amazon and Apple stock, which is worth between $5 million and $25 million each.
