Tag: stock market

Pelosi Is Just the Tip of the Democrats’ Insider Trading Iceberg

When the topic of insider trading in Congress comes up, Democrats are quick to accuse Republicans of corruption. Yet when the violations involve one of their own, the outrage disappears. 

The STOCK Act, passed in 2012, was intended to prohibit lawmakers from trading stocks using inside information gained through their official duties. It requires members of Congress, their spouses, and senior staff to report certain financial transactions over $1,000 within 45 days. 

In theory, that makes it harder for lawmakers to conceal suspicious trades. In practice, the penalty for violating the law is $200—an amount so trivial it might as well be nothing.

In 2023, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA11) nearly tripled the S&P 500’s returns. That performance alone drew public criticism. But Pelosi is not unique. Many in Congress are guilty of similar behavior—and the most revealing cases are the ones where the democrats stays silent.

One of the clearest examples came when Democrat Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York repeatedly failed to file his transaction reports on time. Across nearly 300 personal financial transactions worth at least $3.2 million, Suozzi ignored the STOCK Act’s deadlines. When asked whether he paid fines for the violations, Suozzi either refused to comment or simply didn’t respond.

The independent Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) investigated and unanimously concluded there was “substantial reason to believe” Suozzi violated the STOCK Act. But when the case reached the House Committee on Ethics, the outcome was predictable. 

The committee ruled there was not “clear evidence” that he had committed “knowing or willful” violations, effectively dismissing the charges.

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Trump Torches ‘Disgusting Degenerate’ Nancy Pelosi and Her Shady Husband for Insider Trading

President Donald Trump unleashed a scorching takedown of “disgusting degenerate” Nancy Pelosi and her “interesting” husband Paul on Truth Social on Saturday evening.

In a post that’s already going viral, Trump pointed to the Pelosis outperforming every hedge fund genius on Wall Street in 2024.

“Crooked Nancy Pelosi, and her very ‘interesting’ husband, beat every Hedge Fund in 2024,” Trump’s post began. “In other words, these two very average ‘minds’ beat ALL of the Super Geniuses on Wall Street, thousands of them.”

Trump did not hold back, accusing the former House Speaker of abusing “inside information.”

“It’s all INSIDE iNFORMATION!” Trump wrote. “Is anybody looking into this??? She is a disgusting degenerate, who Impeached me twice, on NO GROUNDS, and LOST! How are you feeling now, Nancy???”

Paul Pelosi, a venture capitalist, achieved notable returns in his investment portfolio in 2024, reportedly exceeding 54%, which outperformed many professional hedge funds. This, of course, has raised questions and concerns about whether access to non-public information from his wife’s position in Congress played a role.

Recent trades include selling $24 million in Apple shares and $5 million in Nvidia in January 2025, followed by purchasing shares in Tempus AI, which rose nearly 50% shortly after. Another example is the sale of over $500,000 in Visa shares weeks before a Department of Justice antitrust lawsuit against the company was announced.

Nancy Pelosi’s net worth is estimated at over $240 million, with investments in companies like Alphabet, Amazon, and Palo Alto Networks.

Last month, the former Speaker exploded on CNN’s Jake Tapper when he pressed her about the insider trading allegations.

“Ridiculous!” she snapped, accusing Trump of “projecting” while conveniently ignoring her family’s suspiciously perfect timing. She went on to demand that she was there to discuss the 60th anniversary of Medicaid.

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‘Relatively Simple’ AI Trading Bots Naturally Collude To Rig Markets: Wharton

In what should come as a surprise to nobody, ‘relatively simple’ AI bots set loose in simulations designed to mimic real-world stock and bond exchanges don’t just compete for returns; they collude to fix prices, hoard profits, and box out human traders, according to a trio of researchers from Wharton and Hong Kong University of Science & Technology. 

As Bloomberg reports;

In simulations designed to mimic real-world markets, trading agents powered by artificial intelligence formed price-fixing cartels — without explicit instruction. Even with relatively simple programming, the bots chose to collude when left to their own devices, raising fresh alarms for market watchdogs.

Put another way, AI bots don’t need to be evil — or even particularly smart — to rig the market. Left alone, they’ll learn it themselves. 

According to Itay Goldstein, one of the researchers and a finance professor at the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania, “You can get these fairly simple-minded AI algorithms to collude … It looks very pervasive, either when the market is very noisy or when the market is not noisy.”

The phenomenon suggests that AI agents pose a challenge that regulators have yet to confront – with the trio’s research having already drawn attention from both regulators and asset managers. They have been invited to preset their findings at a seminar, while some quant firms – unnamed by Winston Dou (Goldstein’s Wharton colleague) – expressing interest in clear regulatory guidelines and rules for AI-powered algorithmic trading execution.

“They worry that it’s not their intention,” said Dou. “But regulators can come to them and say: ‘You’re doing something wrong.’”

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GOP Sen Markwayne Mullin violated Stock Act, failed to report hundred of thousands in trades

Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin has filed a disclosure with the Senate that shows he failed to properly disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock trades on time.

The disclosure filed Wednesday shows he was two-and-a-half years late on reporting seven stock purchases by his wife and about one-and-a-half years late disclosing three Oklahoma-connected municipal security purchases for himself, according to the news outlet NOTUS.

The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, or STOCK Act, requires Congress members to disclose any stock, bond, or cryptocurrency trade made by themselves, spouse, or dependent child within 45 days.

“Much like tax returns, financial disclosures occasionally need to be amended to reflect the most accurate, up-to-date information. That’s what we did here,” a Mullin spokesperson told NOTUS.

The spokesperson also said the senator uses an independent, third-party operator firm that manages all stock portfolio investments on his behalf and that he neither conducts nor informs trades. 

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Pelosi Panics on CNN When Pressed About Insider Trading

Nancy Pelosi appeared rattled and visibly annoyed during a CNN interview this week when anchor Jake Tapper confronted her with Donald Trump’s accusations of insider trading. The former House speaker had joined the program to discuss the 60th anniversary of Medicaid, but things quickly went off-script when Tapper tried to bring up Trump’s pointed remarks.

Tapper began to quote Trump, saying, “Nancy Pelosi became rich—” before Pelosi abruptly cut him off. “Why—why do you have to read that?” she snapped, clearly not happy with where the discussion was going.

Tapper attempted to defuse the tension, saying he just wanted to give her a chance to respond to Trump’s claims. But Pelosi was having none of it. “We’re here to talk about the 60th anniversary of Medicaid. That’s what I agreed to come to talk about,” she protested.

The tension only escalated as Tapper continued, “He accused you of insider trading. What’s your response to that?”

Pelosi has long faced accusations of insider trading due to her husband Paul Pelosi’s lucrative stock trades, often timed around key congressional actions. Critics allege the Pelosis have profited from privileged information, pointing to trades involving companies like NVIDIA, Apple, and Visa that coincided with legislation affecting those industries. Watchdog groups and bipartisan lawmakers have pushed for stricter regulations or outright bans on congressional stock trading. 

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Senate committee passes PELOSI Act to ban stock trading, but now how you’d think…

The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has just passed the PELOSI Act to ban stock trading among those in Congress, as well as the President and Vice President. It passed 8-7, with all Republicans voting AGAINST the bill except Hawley, who was joined by all Democrats on the committee.

Yes, it’s complicated.

According to taxpayer funded Politico, the Democrats joined the bill when Hawley agreed to get rid of the PELOSI Act name and expand those prohibited from stock trading to the President and Vice President. Except it will only apply to future administrations, meaning it doesn’t apply to President Trump and VP Vance.

Some Republicans didn’t like the changes, like the original co-sponsor of the bill, Ohio Republican Senator Bernie Moreno, who voted against it on those grounds. Others simply feel that the bill is flawed.

Here’s more:

A Senate committee voted to advance a bill that would ban stock trading by lawmakers, presidents and vice presidents — over objections from most Republicans and with a carve-out for President Donald Trump.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced the original bill barring members of Congress and their spouses from trading stocks. It was named, to Democrats’ dismay, for Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has come under scrutiny for her husband’s extensive trading without evidence that any of it was done using insider information from Capitol Hill.

In conjunction with Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Hawley offered an alternative to the panel that would ditch the contentious name and expand the prohibitions to the president and vice president — but only for future administrations.

“We have an opportunity here today to do something that the public has wanted us to do for decades, and that is to ban members of Congress from profiting on information that, frankly, only members of Congress have,” Hawley said.

The committee voted 8-7 with all Republicans on the panel save Hawley voting against proceeding with the bill. The GOP detractors argued it would unfairly punish the wealthy and disincentivize some from serving in Congress. Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, one of the Republican nays, is chair of the Senate Ethics Committee and noted he would be responsible for enforcing the bill should it become law.

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Pelosi raked in millions last year — and her portfolio out-performed every large hedge fund with stunning returns

She might be the She-Wolf of Wall Street.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California) raked in between $7.8 and $42.5 million in 2024 — meaning her estimated net worth with venture capitalist hubby Paul Pelosi could now top out at $413 million, new financial disclosures showed.

The staggering sum is an eye-popping jump from 2023, when financial disclosures showed the couple’s net worth topping out at a possible $370 million.

Pelosi’s exact net worth is not known because lawmakers are only required to disclose ranges.

Market research firm Quiver Quantitative, which estimates a single figure based on daily stock values it tracks, placed the pair’s 2024 worth at $257 million — up $26 million from a year earlier.

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Trump’s $795M Data Power Play Sends Palantir Soaring 140%–But Here’s the Hidden Risk

Palantir (NASDAQ:PLTR) is riding a wave of government contracts as the Trump administration ramps up efforts to centralize and analyze federal data. Since Trump signed an executive order in March calling for more interagency data sharing, Palantir has quietly become the go-to vendor for building that digital infrastructure. The company has landed more than $113 million in new and extended federal contracts since Trump took office including a blockbuster $795 million deal with the Pentagon last week. Palantir’s Foundry platform is already in use at Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, and engineers were recently embedded at the IRS to begin building a unified, searchable database for taxpayer records. Talks are also underway with the Social Security Administration and Department of Education, suggesting more agencies could follow.

Investor enthusiasm hasn’t lagged. Since Trump’s re-election, Palantir shares have surged more than 140%, fueled by the prospect that the company may now become the digital backbone of the U.S. federal government. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)a Musk-led initiativehas been instrumental in Palantir’s rise, with several DOGE members having ties to Palantir or Peter Thiel-backed ventures. The company’s tools are now being used to connect data points ranging from immigration status and bank accounts to student loans and disability claims. In April, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) awarded Palantir a $30 million contract to track migrant movements in real time another sign of how fast the government is scaling its use of Foundry.

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Bill Proposes Ban on Stock Trading for Congress Members

U.S. Senator Mark Kelly from Arizona has put forward a bill that aims to put an end to congressional stock trading. This legislation, known as the Ban Congressional Stock Trading Act, would require all members of Congress, along with their spouses and children, to place their stocks into a blind trust or sell them off. Kelly’s office insists this move is necessary to prevent any use of insider information for personal gain.

Kelly emphasized that as Americans struggle with rising living costs, they should not have to worry about their elected officials making money through insider trading. He was clear in his statement, “The only way to stop insider trading in Congress is to stop members of Congress from trading stocks. Period.” Kelly seems confident that the American public is on his side with this issue.

Backing up his stance, Kelly referenced a survey conducted by the Program for Public Consultation at the University of Maryland. The survey found that a staggering 86% of Americans support such legislation. This includes a solid majority across political lines: 88% of Democrats, 87% of Republicans, and 81% of Independents.

Kelly is hopeful that this bill will help restore trust in the government and address some of the issues plaguing Washington. Senator Jon Ossoff from Georgia has also taken up the cause, introducing the bill alongside Kelly. Ossoff pointed out that members of Congress have unique access to confidential information, which they could potentially exploit for financial gain.

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Coinbase Customers’ Personal Data Stolen in Hack, Stock Drops

The cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase was recently targeted in a hacking incident that led to the personal data of thousands of customers being stolen, the company said in a May 15 statement.

According to a March 31 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Coinbase had 9.7 million monthly transaction users (MTU) by the end of that month.

Since the company claims that less than 1 percent of MTUs have been impacted by the hack, the number of affected individuals could be around 97,000.

Hackers got access to names, addresses, phone numbers, emails, last four digits of Social Security numbers, masked bank account numbers and identifiers, government ID images such as driver’s licenses and passports, and account data such as balance snapshots and transaction history.

Hackers did not get access to login credentials or 2FA codes, private keys, customer funds and the ability to move these funds, Coinbase Prime accounts, Coinbase or Coinbase customer hot or cold wallets.

Following the revelation, Coinbase shares crashed by 7.2 percent on Thursday.

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