(RoyalPatriot.com )- Speaker of the House is once again scrambling to head off the latest effort by Progressive Democrat lawmakers to bar members of Congress from trading in stocks. And it’s no wonder since Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul have raked in as much as $30 million from the very tech firms Pelosi is responsible for regulating.
In 2012, Congress passed the STOCK Act which requires all lawmakers to disclose any stock purchases or sales within 45 days. But amid the rampant violations of the STOCK Act, progressive lawmakers have once again argued that it was time to ban members of Congress from trading individual stocks.
Pelosi’s financial disclosure filed in December showed that her husband holds stock in Apple and Amazon that are each worth between $5 million and $25 million. Other assets reported include stock options held in Google’s parent company Alphabet worth between $1 million and $5 million, Comcast stock worth between $1 million and $5 million, and stock in Visa worth between $5 million and $25 million.
Shortly after filing her disclosure, Pelosi dismissed concerns over stock trades by lawmakers, arguing that members of Congress have a right to participate in the free market.
Pelosi’s husband Paul runs the venture capital and investment firm Financial Leasing Service, Inc. Over the years he’s made big bets on the very high-profile companies his wife is supposed to regulate, including Amazon, Apple, and Google.
The Speaker has long maintained that she has no personal involvement in or prior knowledge of Paul’s trading decisions and she does not own any stock herself.
And while Pelosi is not violating the law, nor has she ever been accused of insider trading, Walter Shaub, the former director of the US Office of Government Ethics believes that Pelosi’s windfall of wealth would not be possible but for her position in Congress. Shaub believes lawmakers have built-in privileged information which gives them an advantage over the average investor.
In the nearly 10 years since the STOCK Act was enacted, not one member of Congress has been prosecuted under the law.
