Purchase of Stock Via Call Options
Barron's reports Nancy Pelosi’s Husband Bought Roblox, Microsoft Stock
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband just disclosed he bought Roblox stock the day it went public, and acquired Microsoft stock through options.
The Barron's article is behind a paywall. Fox News also reports the same thing: Pelosi's Husband Bought $10M in Microsoft Shares Through Options.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband purchased millions of dollars worth of Microsoft (MSFT) and Roblox (RBLX) shares last month, new financial disclosures form reveal.
Paul Pelosi exercised call options and paid $1.95 million to buy 15,000 shares of Microsoft at a strike price of $130 on March 19, according to an April 9th filing with the House clerk. That same day, Pelosi, who owns and operates a California venture capital investment and consulting firm, paid $1.4 million for 10,000 shares valued at $140 apiece.
Since Pelosi made the purchase, Microsoft share prices have climbed from about $230 to roughly $255 – an increase of close to 11% – after the company secured a lucrative government contract worth nearly $22 billion to supply U.S. Army combat troops with augmented reality headsets. The deal was announced on March 31.
Extremely Bad Looking
Comments by Krystal and Saagar
- This is an extremely bad look at the very least. And at worst, it's outright corrupt.
- It has the appearance of using insider knowledge of where the US government is headed.
- Access to that knowledge if you are Speaker of the House you may have special insights in order to profit massively off of your stock trades.
- Nancy Pelosi is already a very wealthy woman.
- Why are members of Congress allowed to trade stock while they are holding public office?
- We covered this on the Republican side at the beginning of Covid.
- Even the appearance of this is so disgusting.
Nancy Pelosi Wealth
Nancy Pelosi in the 7th Richest Person in Congress.
Question of the Day
Q: How did Nancy Pelosi become so wealthy?
A: You tell me. Any guesses?
Here's a Thought
Legal For Congress, Not You
Here are recent Pelosi Insider Moves. The list shows the Microsoft call options.
And here is a list of Senate Transactions you may be interested in.
If you had knowledge of this deal and made a similar trade, then got caught, you would be fined, lose all your profits, and potentially be thrown into jail.
Dear @AOC
Recall that Burr, other senators under fire for stock sell-offs amid coronavirus outbreak
Addendum
The stock market purchase was made on March 19, 2021 ahead of the deal as reported.
The option purchase was made 2020-02-28 not 2021-02-28.
Apologies offered. I failed to correctly note the options date.
Paul Pelosi also bought TSLA calls on 2020-12-22 with an expiration of 3/18/22.
That was ahead of Biden's push for energy tax credits.
Important Ethics Issues for All of Congress
Please consider Nancy Pelosi’s Recent Stock Purchase Raises Important Ethics Issues For All Of Congress
Nancy Pelosi made some stock purchases last month that are raising eyebrows — and questions — about the ethics of Congresspeople buying and selling stocks. In December, Rep. Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, purchased 25 call options of Tesla stocks, along with a few other stock purchases. Why does this matter? Because under the Biden administration’s new agenda, with its focus on environmental protections and combating climate change, Pelosi could benefit financially from those political plans.
According to the disclosure, Pelosi (or her husband, Paul, who runs a venture capital firm) purchased call options at a stake price of $500. Since the calls were bought last month, shares of Tesla have risen from $640.34 to over $890. The call options are now valued at $1.12; they were purchased for between $500,000 and $1 million.
Questions of whether it’s ethical for members of Congress to buy and sell stock are not new. Last year, former Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler was accused of insider trading and profiting off the coronavirus pandemic when she sold between $1.275 million and $3.1 million in stocks right after being briefed in January 2020 about the seriousness of the virus. In June of 2020, the investigation was dismissed by a Senate ethics panel. And since then, Loeffler lost her seat in the Senate to Democrat Raphael Warnock.
Another former Georgia Senator, David Perdue, was also criticized for potentially unethical stock purchases during the six years he spent in Congress. The Republican was investigated by the Justice Department for his stock market activity, though no wrongdoing was found (he, too, lost his recent re-election campaign to a Democrat, Jon Ossoff).
In the past, there has been legislation aimed at combating this. The STOCK Act, passed after the 2008 financial crisis, attempted to stop insider trading by making it illegal for government officials to trade stocks after receiving material or nonpublic information “derived” from their jobs, or information that they received while performing their jobs. In light of the Loeffler and Perdue activity, that bill has been re-examined and some people have argued it did not go far enough.
Other lawmakers agree, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley. Currently, there is proposed legislation that would ban individual stock purchases by members of Congress. “After nearly four years of the most corrupt president in American history and with U.S. senators brazenly trading stocks to profit off a raging pandemic, the Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act is more urgent than ever,” Warren and other lawmakers said in a joint statement.
All of these transactions, dates, and timings look extremely bad at the very least.
One cannot prove the Pelosi trades are related to deals and timings just as one cannot prove Loeffler or Perdue were guilty either.
The charges against Loeffler and Perdue were widespread in the media. The charges against Pelosi will not get the same coverage.
