House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made millions of dollars in the stock market on companies she regulates, reports journalist Glenn Greenwald.
Pelosi's wealth has increased to $115 million from $41 million over the last 17 years with most of her and her husband Paul’s additional riches due to extremely lucrative decisions about when to buy and sell tech stocks.
Over the last two years, almost 75% of the trading done by the Pelosis, more than $33 million, has been in Big Tech. Major legislation concerning the industry during the same time frame has been pending before the House, controlled by the committees that Pelosi oversees.
Greenwald points out as a blatant conflict of interest, for example, that buying and selling in just Apple accounted for 17.7% of the Pelosis’ overall trading volume.
During this same period, Pelosi, who is the sixth wealthiest member of Congress, held at least one private conversation with Apple CEO Tim Cook about how various pending legislation to reform Silicon Valley could influence his company.
The New York Times reported last month that one of the most important initiatives taken by the tech industry against antitrust reform bills was a personal call placed by Apple CEO Tim Cook directly to Pelosi.
Although sources told the Times that Pelosi in fact pushed back on Cook’s concerns about the bills, in doing so, they actually confirmed that she was having private discussions with the CEO of a company in which she was making millions of dollars, including reportedly asking him what changes were needed to avoid harming his business.
In addition, Greenwald stated that all five of the most-traded stocks over the last two years by the Pelosis are the five Silicon Valley giants that would be most affected by pending legislation that she is involved in.
What makes this even the more disturbing, according to Greenwald, is that several times over the last several years serious questions have been raised about stock positions taken by the Pelosis that, in the end, turned out to be extremely profitable under suspicious circumstances.
Fox Business reported that Pelosi's husband bought highly risky options in Google, Apple and other tech companies in February, 2020, just before the coronavirus pandemic, held on to them as they plummeted in value and then sold them later at a massive profit, with his option sales on just Google making more than $5 million for the couple.
Pelosi has denied that she is involved in or has any knowledge of her husband's stock trading.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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