Tag: stock market

Burchett chides colleagues over insider trading: ‘Crooked as a dog‘s leg’

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) has slammed his colleagues in Congress who engage in insider trading, saying they should be “on Wall Street” instead of on Capitol Hill.

“Americans understand what’s going on with Congress,” Burchett said Sunday on the “Cats Roundtable” radio show hosted by John Catsimatidis on WABC 770 AM. “When they see their members of Congress making three, four, 500 percent returns, dadgum it, they ought not be in Congress, they ought to be on Wall Street.”

Burchett called it wrong and said “everybody knows it, and I think it’s crooked as a dog’s leg, and we need to outlaw it.”

On Sept. 3, a bipartisan group of legislators introduced a bill that would ban stock trading by members of Congress and their close family members.

The “Restore Trust in Congress Act” mixes together several past proposals intended to stop members of Congress from trading stocks.

Should the bill pass, lawmakers who violate the law would face financial penalties equal to 10 percent of the value of their investment and would be forced to relinquish any earnings from the violation.

“If you want a day trade, leave Congress,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), one of the bill’s co-sponsors, previously said. “It’s that simple.”

“We’re not going to judge what you did before now, but now that this bill is going to come to the floor — and we’re going to make sure of that — it’s your chance to get right with the American people because at the end of the day, Congress is not a casino,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) also said.

In August, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called for a ban on members of Congress trading individual stocks. Bessent specifically named former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and said they have “eye-popping returns.”

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House Democrat Snagged a Bunch of Oracle Stock Just Before TikTok Deal Was Announced

President Donald Trump last week signed an executive order affirming technology giant Oracle would play a leading — and potentially lucrative — role in TikTok’s pending U.S. spinoff from Chinese company ByteDance.

Just days before that, a Democratic congressman from Louisiana was busy buying up shares of Oracle, according to a congressional financial disclosure reviewed by NOTUS.

Rep. Cleo Fields purchased between $80,000 and $200,000 worth of Oracle shares across three different trades — on Sept. 17, 18 and 23, the disclosure document indicates. (Lawmakers are only required to disclose the values of stock trades in broad ranges.) News of Oracle’s participation in the TikTok deal first broke on Sept. 22.

Fields is a member of the House Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, which has jurisdiction over laws and government programs affecting financial markets and the securities industry. He also serves on the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, or STOCK Act, prohibits members of Congress from using nonpublic information to inform personal financial decisions.

It is unclear what Fields knew about Oracle’s participation in the TikTok deal — if he knew anything — or whether Fields initiated the Oracle stock purchases himself or had a financial adviser make the purchases on his behalf.

Fields’ congressional office acknowledged NOTUS’ requests for comment but did not otherwise respond.

In July, after Fields went on a June stock-purchasing spree worth between $3.56 million and $11.07 million, Fields’ office told OpenSecrets that the congressman “has complied with all rules outlined by the House of Representatives.” Fields represents a congressional district that stretches from Shreveport to Baton Rouge.

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Nancy Pelosi Supports Ban on Congressional Insider Trading — ‘Hell Is Freezing Over’

We’re feeling the heat of summer in Washington, DC, but hell is freezing over anyway. 

Why? Because veteran stock market wizard Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), has come out in support of a bill that will ban members of Congress from trading in stocks or options. 

For late arrivals, former House Speaker Pelosi has for more than a decade been the poster child for members of Congress who became rich by trading on inside information to predict the movement of the stock market. Pelosi has long tried to deflect criticism by saying that her husband makes all the stock moves, but the numbers don’t lie: While the S&P index is up by 240 percent over the last 10 years, Pelosi and her husband are up an eye-popping 745 percent.  

Peter Schweizer, who wrote about congressional stock speculating in the 2011 book Throw Them All Out, notes on the latest episode of The Drill Down podcast that when she first came to Congress, Nancy Pelosi was worth “a couple million.” Today, “she and her husband are worth about $260 million.” 

Schweizer and the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) documented her fortunate efforts in the stock market, which is detailed in a clip in today’s show. She managed to stop a bill from coming to the House floor that would have harmed Visa, Inc. She subsequently was part of that company’s initial public offering and, in two days, watched her shares go from $44 to $64 a share. 

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Insider Trading Runs Deep Within the Democrat Party

Democrats routinely claim to be defenders of ordinary Americans against Wall Street corruption. Yet, their financial disclosures reveal a pattern of insider trading that dwarfs what they accuse Republicans of doing. 

Insider trading exists on both sides of the aisle, but when Democrats are involved, the media looks the other way and pretends it doesn’t exist.

No example is more blatant than former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. According to financial disclosure reports, Pelosi and her husband, Paul, reported stock trades worth as much as $30 million in technology companies during her time in leadership. 

These trades weren’t random investments. In March 2021, Paul Pelosi exercised Microsoft options valued at up to $5 million, just weeks before the company secured a $22 billion U.S. Army contract for augmented reality headsets. 

In July 2021, he purchased shares of Alphabet worth between $1 million and $5 million while the House was debating legislation on Big Tech regulation. Later that year, he bought up to $3.3 million in Tesla stock as Democrats pushed for billions in electric vehicle subsidies. 

Pelosi repeatedly called criticism “nonsense,” but the profits are undeniable.

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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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